It was a cold and winless road trip through Colorado, as the Hornets? soccer team lost to the Air Force 1-0 on Sunday afternoon, and Denver 3-1 on Friday night.

Both games were Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference games, where Sac State now falls to 0-3, and 4-6-1 overall.

The team had to play in sub-freezing temperatures, ranging in the low 30?s. Head coach Michael Linenberger could only reiterate this point when asked about the weather. “It was extremely cold,” Linenberger said. “We played in a little bit of snow and sleet as well.”

On Sunday, Sac State was out-dueled by Air Force, losing 1-0, when Casey Chronruster scored the game?s lone goal in the 62nd minute of the game. Chronruster was able to score the goal when he headed the ball just over the reach of Chris Haustein, the Hornets? goalie. Linenberger felt that his team gave a good performance in the poor weather conditions and high altitude.

“We were very pleased with our performance, and felt we met the challenges,” he said. In the first half, neither team was able to capitalize on numerous scoring opportunities, as the game remained scoreless throughout. Sac State was able to get off 6 shots in the first half but was unable to convert.

Sac State had nine shots, four of those on goal in the game. In comparison, Air Force had 15 shots, with 10 of those shots being on goal. Linenberger thought that his team had some chances to score in the game, but could not convert.

“We had a couple of good chances in the second half,” Linenberger said. “But we felt we had the more dangerous chances in the first half.”

On Friday night, Sac State started out their road-trip facing Denver, and losing 3-1. The Hornets were able to avoid the shutout when Hornet junior defender Andy Hashimoto, who entered the game a few minutes earlier, was able to put the ball through the net in the 80th minute. Hashimoto was able to gather a loose ball and fire a shot that slipped through the Denver goalie. The goal was Hashimoto?s first goal as a Hornet.

Linenberger felt that the team?s problems on the trip stemmed from a lack of preparation. “We were not ready to play,” Linenberger said. “In the first half we were terrible, but we put together a decent second half.”

Denver got on the scoreboard twice in the first half when Eric Van Deman scored in the 37th minute and Justin Kiersky scored in the 42nd minute. “They had the pressure on us,” Linenberger said. “If we could have come out with a 0-0 tie, we would have been lucky.”

The Hornets came out in the second half and applied some pressure, but it was to no avail as they were not able to put the ball through the net until the 80th minute. Linenberger felt that the team had the momentum at the start of the second half, but the sprinklers came on and Denver was able to regroup and hold off Sac State in the process.

“We had the momentum the first 20 minutes of the second half,” Linenberger said. “We had a decent second half. If we play like that the entire game, we might have had a different result.”

Sac State has lost three in a row an they will host Saint Mary?s in a non-conference game on Friday.