The Sacramento State men’s soccer team defeated Santa Clara University in the first round of the NCAA College Cup today 2-1 at Hornet Soccer Field to advance to the second round of the tournament.

This will be the second year in a row that the Hornets advance to the next round. Last year the team defeated Loyola Marymount University 2-1 in overtime to advance against UCLA. This year’s result pushed Sac State into the next round against Bruins for the second time.

With the win, Sac State improves its record to 11-4-7 overall while the Broncos end the season with an overall record of 10-6-5. The Hornets extend their home unbeaten streak to 21 games going 16-0-5 this season at Hornet Soccer field.

In the first half of play neither team was able to get an advantage over the other as the air horn sounded after 45 minutes of play with score tied at 0-0.

Head coach Michael Linenberger felt that both teams were careful not to be the first to make a mistake.

“I felt that both teams were very conservative in the first half. Both teams played very tentative with not a lot movement going forward,” Linenberger said. “But the play did open up more in the second half.”

In the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Hornets found their way onto the scoreboard to lead 1-0 over the Broncos. Senior midfielder Ernesto Carranza cleaned up the ball as it bounced around in the goal box. Once the ball was corralled, he dropped it into the far right post past Santa Clara goal keeper Kevin Klasila for his sixth goal of the season.

Carranza said he had to make a last minute decision in the box so that he could avoid the ball from being stopped.

“Rory passed me a good ball but it ended up bouncing around a little bit. But then I got a good touch on the ball,” Carranza said. “I felt that the keeper would defend the near post and so I decided to hit the ball to the far post and out of his range.”

The Broncos would also find a way to score as junior defender Eric Masche took a long throw in from the far out-of-bounds line and shot the ball past Sac State freshman keeper Cesar Castillo in the 58th minute of play.

Withfive minutes left on the clock and the pace of the game picking up, junior forward Chris Bettencourt scored the game winning goal for the Hornets. With the goal for Bettencourt, he leads all Sac State scores with 11 goals this season andsix goals in the teams lastfive games.

Sophomore forward Max Alvarez cleaned up the ball in the goal box as Klasila blocked the ball out the awaiting forward. He then floated the ball to the middle of the box where Bettencourt timed his jump and headed the ball to give the Hornets the 2-1 lead.

Bettencourt said luck must have been on his side because the break he needed in order to score was right in his face.

“One of things that our coaches always say is when a shot is taken follow up if the ball doesn’t go in. I could hear Mike in my head saying, “follow-up, follow-up,'” Bettencourt said. “Because every time I don’t follow-up, an opportunity like that happens. The time was right and it must be destiny because the ball was there and I followed up and poked at for the goal.”

With precious seconds falling off the clock, Sac State went into defensive mode and did not allow Santa Clara a clean shot on goal. The game ended to the boisterous cheering of 788 in attendance at Hornet Soccer Field. This game accounts for the most fans in attendance in any match that the Hornets have played in this season.

The Hornets move on to play UCLA; they are No. 8 seed in the College Cup and defeated the Hornets 2-1 in the teams’ last meeting. The Bruins go into the match with the Hornets holding a 14-4-1 overall record.

Bettencourt said it would be great if Sac State was able to get retribution for the loss to the Bruins.

“Hopefully we will get some revenge. I didn’t get to play last year, so to get them back would be very nice,” Bettencourt said.

Linenberger said the team will need to restore their bodies as they have playedfive games since Nov. 6.

“The big thing for us as it has been over the last week to two weeks is trying to regenerate. We need to get our bodies and minds right,” Linenberger said. “I think our minds will be fine but our bodies are more of a concern for us right now. We have two days, Friday and Saturday to get our bodies’ right and recover and then give it chance on Sunday.”

Sac State will travel to UCLA for the second round of the tournament. Kick-off will be at 5 p.m. on Sunday at Drake Stadium.

Matt Harrington can be reached at [email protected]