Sacramento State opened up Big West Conference play with a 1-1 tie against CSU Bakersfield Wednesday evening.
With the tie against Bakersfield, Sac State put an end to their previous four-game losing streak and picked up their first point in the Big West Conference standings.
Sac State struck first in the 15th minute of the match with senior midfielder Francisco Magaña hitting a volley past the goalkeeper after receiving a phenomenal pass from sophomore midfielder Hasan Alsakati. Senior midfielder Cody Sundquist was also credited with an assist on the goal.
Alsakati has shown his creativity on the pitch all throughout the season and has been a great addition to the team since transferring from Cal Poly.
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For Magaña, this was his first goal of the season. The senior midfielder came off a five-goal season in 2022, so the slow start to 2023 is something Magaña wants to put behind him.
“I think today was a good start to build confidence,” Magaña said. “I do want to score, but most importantly I want to win.”
Bakersfield looked to score the equalizer after going down and with several good chances to score, they couldn’t convert those chances into goals. The Roadrunners had a total of seven shots after going down a goal in the first half.
In the 37th minute, a moment of controversy struck the game. The Roadrunners were awarded a penalty after Sac State junior defender Bryan Gutierrez appeared to push a Bakersfield player from behind.
Gutierrez was adamant that he did not push the opposing player and tried to plead his case to the referee, but the decision was already made.
“I think [the referee] was just looking for something to give if I’m being honest,” Gutierrez said. “I had my hands up. I don’t know what else I can do in that moment. Soft call.”
As much as Sac State didn’t like the penalty call, there was nothing they could do. It was now up to junior goalkeeper Mac Learned to see if he could come up big and save the penalty kick.
He did not. Bakersfield junior forward Connor Mautino slotted the ball in the bottom right corner for the equalizer eight minutes before halftime.
Although he gave up the foul that led to the penalty, it was a solid performance from Gutierrez, who was playing at center-back for the first time at Sac State. Gutierrez has mainly played at left-back throughout his time at Sac State.
The transition from left-back to center-back is not easy. Despite them being defensive positions, the roles they require are quite different.
“As left-back, I get to go out and attack, at center-back, I don’t have to do all that running.” Gutierrez said.
The second half was a scoreless 45 minutes, but that’s not to say that either team didn’t have a chance to take the lead. Both teams had better scoring opportunities than they did in the first half.
Both teams combined for a total of 15 shots in the second half with seven of those being on target, compared to the first half where they combined for 11 shots with only three being on target.
The Roadrunners were the slightly better team on Wednesday evening. They outshot Sac State 15-11 and had seven shots on target compared to the Hornets’ five shots on target. Bakersfield also hit the crossbar twice in the match.
Even though they gave up a penalty that led to the equalizer, and had several chances to retake the lead, it was an encouraging performance from the Hornets; the tie was a result that head coach Michael Linenberger thought was fair.
“If you look at chances created, I thought our performance overall was better than it has been in recent weeks,” Linenberger said. “I thought we started well for the first time. The second half, I know they hit the post once, but we had a couple of really good chances.”
Next up for the Hornets is a home game against UC San Diego on Saturday at 4 p.m.
