After an impressive streak of four consecutive wins at home, Sacramento State men’s soccer needed another win on Friday to stay in contention for a fourth straight playoff appearance.

This time Sac State could not find the late game magic, losing their first game at home to Denver, 2-1.

The Hornets (4-8-1, 4-3-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) are now in serious jeopardy of not making the playoffs after losing a critical and highly controversial game to Denver (8-3-1, 5-1-0).

The first half of the match was completely dominated by the Pioneers, holding Sac State to no shots on goal.

Denver was on the offensive the entirety of the first half, going up by two goals in the first 18 minutes.

The Pioneers opened the scoring when Travis Hendricks picked up a Hornet turnover and dribbled the ball through Sac State’s box, avoiding a couple of defenders, and shot a ball to the low left post, past a diving Matt McDougall, for the game’s first goal.

Denver continued the scoring when Kyle Christensen sent a ball over the top of the Hornet defenders and Christian Bowers received the ball all alone sending a shot past McDougall to make the game 2-0, capping off the dominant half for the Pioneers.

“I was really disappointed with the first 20 minutes of the game; we looked scared and nervous out there and were slow and sloppy,” head coach Michael Linenberger said. “They’re a real good team, but we were home where we play so well, so I don’t know why we were intimidated.”

The second half was a different story for the Hornets, as they were cleaner with the ball, more offensive, and gave themselves more scoring opportunities.

The first of the opportunities to result in points was in the 71st minute of the match, when sophomore defender Eric Ortiz sent a volley into the box. Sophomore midfielder/forward Ryan Rhoads kicked the ball out of mid-air for his team-leading fifth goal of the season, making the score 2-1.

With close to 10 minutes remaining in the match, the Hornets nearly tied the game up, but a goal by junior midfielder Andrew Tamm was waived off because Tamm was offside according to the referee. Tamm got a yellow card for arguing and thought it should’ve been the game-tying goal.

“I don’t think I was off sides; it deflected off the defender and when I looked at him, he was keeping me on sides,” Tamm said. “It was the heat of the moment, so I got frustrated and before I could even get a word in with the referee, he gave me a yellow card. “Who knows what could’ve happened after we tied the score up? We just have to get ready and play Sunday’s game.”

That was the last of the big scoring opportunities the Hornets would have for the rest of the game, coming up short by one goal.

“They took the game to us in the second half; we lost our composure and their comeback is a credit to their team,” Denver head coach Chad Ashton said.

Linenberger was equally impressed with his team in the second half, noting that his team started playing harder, handling the ball cleaner and kept Denver on the defensive for a good portion of the second half.

The home loss put a blemish on the Hornet’s home record, now making them 4-1-1 at Hornet Soccer Field.

The conference loss also dealt a huge blow to their already slim playoff hopes.

“It was a tough loss and now our chances of winning the conference are in jeopardy,” Linenberger said. “We are going to need to win every game here on out, and get some help from the other teams; Denver will have to lose some games and the same with New Mexico.”

Ortiz’s pass to Rhoads gave him his first assist of the season.

The Hornets concluded their season-long four match home stand on Sunday with a 2-1 double overtime win over Mountain Pacific foe Air Force (6-7-1, 2-5-0).

Sophomore forward Eli Millan notched the game winner in the 103rd minute on a lob pass from sophomore midfielder Pedro Lupercio over the Falcons defense.

The teams played to a scoreless tie in the first half but both would get a score in the second. Hornets sophomore defender Ismael Echeverria got his team on the board first with a goal over Air Force goal keeper Paul Elsberd from 25 yards out.

The Falcons struck back in the 62nd minute on header from Daniel Bolin past Sac State senior keeper Matt McDougall.

A crowd of 276 fans was on hand to witness the victory and send the Hornets off on a road trip which takes them to UNLV Friday at 7 p.m. and San Diego State Sunday at 3 p.m.