Follow San Francisco Men's Soccer: FACEBOOK | TWITTER SAN FRANCISCO—With the hope of sneaking into the NCAA Tournament, the Dons came out and put consistent pressure on Santa Clara throughout the match and it eventually paid off with two second half goals as they took the West Coast Conference finale 2-0 on Saturday night.
San Francisco finished the regular season 11-6-2 and 5-2-0 in WCC play, the best mark since 2006, and now must wait until Monday morning when the 48-team NCAA Tournament field will be announced. The Dons came into the week with an RPI of 57.
"I think the starting point of where we are at in my first year, I'm very happy," San Francisco head coach
Eddie Soto said. "To get 11 wins, to have the RPI that we have and to not just win but win the right way.
"The [second] goal that we scored here is a by-product is what we have been working on the entire year. Davi [Ramos]' goal was world class. For us, that's the bar that we set. That's what we want. That's what we expect."
San Francisco put the pressure on Santa Clara (6-9-4, 2-4-1 WCC) early in the second half and sent in a cross into
Aaron Lombardi but his chip shot at the goal line went wide.
Only minutes later,
David Garrett broke out on the counter attack and had only one defender to beat and he fired from the left wing but it was tipped away by a leaping Carrwik. The Dons nearly got on the board in the 59th minute when a series of passes found Garrett near the penalty line and his shot went off the arms of Carrwik.
"David is a very athletic player," Soto said. "He's very active, he causes a lot of problems up top. The minutes he got tonight, I thought they were very positive. He's got to build on that."
The pressure finally broke Santa Clara down as Garrett found a cutting
Davi Ramos who found the top left corner for the goal for his second goal in as many games. He nearly added another moments later when
David Romney found Ramos at the goal line but his chip went high.
"He was obviously somebody that we missed," Soto said of Ramos. "His injury really hurt our team. Credit to Stephanie [Ludwig], our athletic trainer. She did an incredible job of getting him healthy. We have no idea we would get him back for the last two games. What an impact he made in the last two games."
The Dons put the match away in the 85th minute when Kirkland's shot when off the right post and ricocheted right to Lombardi who leaped for the kick and the goal.
The match also marked the final home matches for the Dons' seven seniors: Kirkland, Romney,
Miguel Aguilar,
Taylor Krueger,
Sixto Porras,
Chase Hauser and
Irving Ventura-Rafaela. Aguilar and Kirkland have combined for 26 career goals and are the top two scorers for the Dons this season. Romney has made all but seven starts since arriving on the Hilltop. Hauser has picked up seven shutouts in his two seasons at USF. Porras and Krueger have each played in 63 career games in Green and Gold. Ventura-Rafaela played in 16 games in his two seasons.
San Francisco took some time to get rolling but eventually found their rhythm.
In the ninth minute, Romney sent in a cross to the box but it missed the wide open feet of both
Miguel Aguilar and
Bryce Kaminski as both overran the pass, allowing Santa Clara to clear.
After a handball call in the 30th minute,
Danny Kirkland lined up to take the kick just outside of the penalty box and sent it towards the low left corner of the goal but a diving save by Carl Carrwik kept the match scoreless. The ensuing corner kick bounced around in the box and found its way to the foot of
Aaron Lombardi, who sent a rocket over the crossbar for a goal kick.
"We had the ball a lot, we just weren't getting anything from it," Soto said. "When you possess like that, you have to have a purpose to it and I felt in the first 20-25 minutes, we didn't. As the game went on, we really started to gain momentum, create a lot of good opportunities."
With four seconds remaining in the half, Kirkland delivered a free kick into the box and the header from
Justin Schottenhammer went high to end the half.
