The Hornets fell to UC Riverside 2-0 on Saturday night while not mustering a single shot on  goal in the game.

With the loss the Hornets move to 3-7-3 on the season while they now sit at 1-1-2 in Big West conference play. UC Riverside is 2-2 in Big West and 7-5 overall.

The Bears added a goal in each half and senior defender Jonick Pineda struck first, scoring in the 32nd minute to make it 1-0 in favor of Riverside.

“I thought in the first half we were poor,” said head coach Michael Linenberger of the team’s performance. “We had no energy. I thought we got outworked the entire first half, just thought we were flat.”

Linenberger said that he felt better about the team’s efforts in the second half.

“I was really happy with our performance in the second half, we got on top of them,” Linenberger said despite the team still falling 2-0.

In the 80th minute, Riverside junior midfielder Oscar Penate extended the lead to two as he got one past the Hornets’ goalkeeper junior Ryan Curtis through the right side.

“I don’t think we came out with the right mentality, right energy and eventually that is what ended up killing us,” said sophomore forward Francisco Magana. “We need to just get over this loss and get our mentality right for when we start games, not having to ease our way into games because that is what kills us.” 

Saturday marked the fourth time this season in which the Hornets were shut out, however, it was the first time in the season that they also did not manage a single shot on goal. 

Curtis made three saves and gave up the two goals. 

Saturday marked just the sixth time Curtis has given up multiple goals in a game.

Sophomore midfielder Alex Petty picked up a red card in the second half, just four minutes later Penate extended the lead to two which essentially ended the game for the Hornets. Along with the red card, the Hornets picked up four yellow cards to the Bears’ one. 

The Hornets have another Big West matchup Wednesday as CSU Bakersfield pays a visit to Hornet Field. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. as Sac State looks to rebound after their first conference loss.