Sacramento State men’s soccer held on to defeat the Utah Valley Wolverines by a final score of 3-2 to remain unbeaten at home on Thursday at Hornet Field.
Going into the match, Utah Valley (6-2-0) was ranked 15th in the nation.
The physicality of the contest showed early and often as Sac State (4-3-0) senior forward Nate Nugen received a yellow card in the first 30 seconds of the match. This seemed to ignite the Hornet offense and senior midfielder Ivan Ramirez as he scored the first goal of the game less than two minutes later.
Soon after Ramirez’s goal, Nugen made up for the early yellowcard by shooting an assist to senior forward Alex Bettencourt — who earned Big West Offensive Player of the Week honors last week — for another goal in the sixth minute of the game extending the lead to 2-0.
However, one of the highest-ranked teams in the country refused to go away as Utah Valley answered with a strike from midfielder Gui Leme shortly after he entered the game in the 21st minute. Trailing 2-1, Utah Valley midfielder Karson Payton added another goal in the 26th minute to tie the contest at 2-2.
“We got off to a dream start and we carried a lot of the game early,” Sacramento State head coach Michael Linenberger told Hornet Athletics. “After we scored our second goal I thought our character changed and we got scared. They got themselves back in the game, but once they scored their second goal I thought we got our energy back. The goal right before halftime was huge and gave us a chance to regroup.”
The aforementioned goal before halftime was scored by Ramirez who made his way into the box, flicked the ball up over Utah Valley goalkeeper Elliott Rubio and ditched a final defender to score for the second time in the 40th minute.
The physical play picked up where it left off from the first half as another yellow card was given, this time to Utah Valley forward Skyler Milne, but the bad blood was only beginning to boil between the two clubs.
Bettencourt received a yellow card for a sliding tackle in the 57th minute and Nugen received his second yellow card and was ejected from the contest in the 69th minute, but Sac State held on to its 3-2 lead despite the Wolverines outshooting the Hornets 10-0 in the second half.
“In the second half they carried almost the entire game,” Linenberger told Hornet Athletics. “At the half we talked about not fouling and giving up set pieces and in the first eight minutes we probably gave them half a dozen chances. When Nugen got red carded I thought our guys dug deep and hung in there and we found a way to kill the game off. It’s a fantastic win; I wasn’t happy with our soccer playing in the second half but I was happy with our grit.”
Sac State will next take on Saint Mary’s in the Copa De Causeway tournament at Hornet Field on Saturday at 4 p.m.
