The Sacramento State men’s soccer team split their matches this weekend versus their counterparts from Colorado at Hornet Soccer Field.

The Hornets dropped their match Sunday versus the University of Denver 4-1, but opened up the weekend by beating the Air Force Academy 3-2 on Friday.

After this weekend’s action, the Hornets moved to 4-9-1 on the season overall and are 1-2-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

In Sunday’s action, the Sac State defense was under great pressure throughout the game. Once the Pioneers crossed midfield, the Hornets had trouble clearingballs out of their defensive end as the Pioneers peppered shot after shot at senior goalkeeper Jeff Gibson.

The persistent attack finally broke through in the 20th minute when Denver’s Travis Hendricks scored on Gibson’s left side to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead.

In the second half, the Pioneers (7-6-2, 1-1) put the Hornets away for good in the 66th minute when James Merriman headed a pass from Hendricks into the net for a 2-0 advantage.

The Pioneers would add two more goals in the match, both coming off the foot of Kyle Christianson in the 73rd and 76th minutes of the match.

The Hornets would not be shutout though. Just minutes before the match ended, Sac State was awarded a penalty shot after a deliberate hand ball was calledon the Pioneers in the box. Junior defender Marcos Mercado converted the penalty into a goal to make the final score 4-1.

“This game kind of reflects the way our season has been going,” midfielder Miguel Ramirez said. “We’ve been very inconsistent, but we have to keep our heads up.”

Although it was a disappointing way to end the weekend, the start of it was just what the Hornets needed.

After beating Monterey Bay 3-2 last week, Sac State was looking to build off that success in its first conference home game of the year against Air Force.

The Falcons, however, would get the scoring going first in the 30th minute as Colin Eames scored to give Air Force a 1-0 lead.

But the Falcons’ lead would be short-lived.

Junior forward Patrick Nelle tied the match at 1-1 in the 40th minute, with assists going to freshmen Eli Millan and Ryan Rhoads.

Rhoads and Nelle would hook up once more in the 44th minute as the freshman found the junior in the penalty area. Nelle found the net and gave the Hornets a 2-1 advantage. The goal was Nelle’s team-leading third of the year, while Rhoads’ assist gave him a team-leading four.

After being credited with an assist on the Hornets’ first goal, Millan decided to put his name under the goal column as well in the 49th minute. The goal andassist were Millan’s first points as a Hornet.

The Falcons would close the gap to 3-2 when Daniel Wasson scored his 14th goal of the year. Wasson’s 14 goals lead all of Division-I soccer.

Gibson posted his second straight victory while posting three saves.

“If we would have taken care of the game (Sunday), we probably would have already qualified for the tournament,” head coach Michael Linenberger said “Losing at home in conference is not a good thing. Now we’re back in battle zone to qualify for the tournament.”

The Hornets enter the MPSF battle zone again Sunday when they travel to UNLV for a noon match-up.