After Sacramento State football’s blowout loss to UC Davis Saturday night, Hornet men’s soccer took to the field against the Aggies and though the score was much closer, the outcome was the same.

In attempting to win its second straight game of the season, its first on the road, Sac State fell just short of the task and lost Sunday afternoon by the score of 2-1 at Aggie field.

The Aggies (3-4-1) and Hornets (1-4-1) both played solid first halves, and though Davis was leading 1-0 at half-time thanks to a goal from forward Ryan Shaw, Sac State out shot Davis and had more scoring opportunities.

With a flurry of cross passes and shots on goal, senior forward Patrick Nelle took charge of the offensive threat with four of the Hornets’ six shots, three on goal, in the first half.

For a while, it looked as if Sac State would be the first team on the board. Unfortunately for the Hornets, they couldn’t capitalize on any of it and they lost charge of the game in the second half.

Davis dominated Sac State in the second half to the tune of eight shots on goal to the Hornets’ three and put the game out of reach with its second goal of the match by its star of the day, midfielder Keith Gilbert, who scored with only 11 minutes remaining in the contest to all but bury the Hornets.

“I was very pleased with our first period of play; we were dangerous and very confident about going into the second period flying,” head coach Michael Linenberger said. “But then we came out flat and slow and they took over in the second period.

“We kept coming and didn’t give up after that second goal was scored on us and we made it close in the end, so I was happy to see that out of our guys.”

Sac State fought back to come within one goal of a tie after junior midfielder Marco Ramirez knocked in his second goal of the season on a rebound from his own penalty kick in the 87th minute of play; that goal would be all for the Hornets as they lost for the fourth time in six matches this season.

The scoring on started relatively late, when in the 32nd minute of play, Gilbert found a wide-open Shaw and fed him a 20-yard pass that Shaw tapped in to an almost vacant net for his fourth goal of the season.

Sac State goalkeeper Matt McDougall saved his defense on many occasions as he stopped seven shots in the second period, nine overall, but could not get to Gilbert’s late goal that essentially sealed the game.

After a steal at midfield, Gilbert took the ball down-field by himself, shook off a Sac State defender and scored on a goal that snuck right under the top-left crossbar, igniting a roar from the Aggie faithful in attendance.

“That was a brilliant goal,” McDougall said. “We didn’t bring it today and they just out-played us; we had a lot of opportunities today but we just didn’t get it done.”

“I just stole the ball, pushed it up and had a one-on-one with the guy; he turned the wrong way and I put in,” said Gilbert, who had a busy day with a goal, an assist and three shots on goal.

When a penalty kick was called for, the Hornets got their first goal with 3 minutes and 10 seconds left as Ramirez tapped in the rebound off his own penalty shot that Davis goalkeeper Charles Warne could not reel in to make the score 2-1 and give Sac State a chance to tie the game up.

“Our plan was to focus on ourselves and the six basic areas of concentration we devised for this game, and when we did that, that’s when we played our best,” Davis head coach Dwayne Shaffer said. “It’s always a battle when we play Sac State; it’s just not going their way right now.”

The Hornets were trying to build upon their first win of the season, which they accomplished at home this past Thursday against Dominican by the score of 4-0.

Four different players each scored their first goals of the season including sophomore forward Eli Millan, whose goal opened the scoring explosion for the Hornets. Conversely, the Penguins only had one shot on goal, and McDougall got his first shutout of the season, sixth overall for his career.

Sunday’s game was Sac State’s final game before they start Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play next week. The Hornets will stay on the road and play their first MPSF game at Air Force on Oct. 3 at 7 p.m.