Sacramento State men’s soccer team opened Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference play today with a 0-0 tie at Hornet Field against San Jose State University.

The tie was the team’s second in as many games and helped to extend its unbeaten streak to seven games. With the tie, the team record now sits at 5-2-2 overall and 0-0-1 in the MPSF. For the Spartans, their record now comes to 6-3-1 overall and 0-0-1 in the MPSF.

Sac State had several chances throughout the game to score early in the first half, but just came up short. Its first opportunity came early as defensemen Bryan Baker received the ball from midfielder Fernando Cabadas, but was blocked away by a San Jose State defender.

Later in the game, a goal was overturned by an offsides call as Cabadas set-up forward Ernesto Carranza, as he shot the ball from 15 yards out and into the back of the net.

The Hornets had to fight against an equally hard-working Spartan team, as they had 21 shots on freshman goal keeper Cesar Castillo.

Castillo earned his fifth shutout of the season and dropped his goals against average to 0.86 on the season.

Castillo said the extra skills work in practice prepared him for games where he would face a lot of shots on goal.

“A lot of hard work in practice and making basic saves. When shots come my way, I try really hard to save them,” Castillo said. “It feels great to have the help of my teammates. We all try really hard in practice and earn these kinds of results.”

Team captain Adam Bettencourt said the team worked on being aggressive with the ball but ultimately were a little flat in the game.

“This week we worked primarily on attacking and getting numbers forward. Today however, we didn’t come out and execute what we practiced this week,” Bettencourt said. “Luckily our defenders played well because we didn’t do very well attacking with the ball. Today just wasn’t our day.”

Head coach Michael Linenberger said the team needs to work hard to earn crucial points as CSU Bakersfield comes to Hornet Field Friday at 1:30 p.m.

“It is a home game for us; we need to get three points. We have to keep our defense going but we also have to be cleaner with the soccer ball,” Linenberger said. “We need to attack and be more creative with the soccer ball.”

Matt Harrington can be reached at [email protected]