Sacramento State men’s soccer came up short defensively against Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday, Oct. 2 in a 3-0 loss, but flourished offensively to gain a 2-1 win over UC Riverside on Saturday, Oct. 5.

Wednesday: Sac State: 0, Cal State Bakersfield: 3

The Hornets began their first game of Big West conference play on a loss following their five game win streak.

Sac State tried to build attacks from the back line, but came up short as they lacked control over the ball.

“We allowed the opponent to get on the front foot,” Sac State head coach Michael Linenberger said. “They kind of pushed us back early in the game, and we struggled to come back and find an answer.”

In the 15th minute of the match, Roadrunner senior forward Connor Mautino dribbled the ball down the right wing and launched a shot that ricocheted into the air off of Hornet senior goalkeeper Mac Learned. The ball came back down and Mautino tapped it in for a 1-0 lead.

Early in the second half, senior defender Shammai Camara provided a pass into the box to Mautino who rolled a shot past Learned and into the goal for a 2-0 lead.

In the last 15 minutes, Roadrunner sophomore defender Filip Arras crossed a ball to Mautino who found himself alone with Learned. Arras looped a shot into the right side of the goal for a hat trick and a 3-0 win.

Saturday: Sac State: 2, UC Riverside: 1

Sac State began the game with energy, but struggled to connect on passes and build meaningful attacks.

The Hornets established their offensive presence when senior midfielder Axel Ramirez powered a pass through to sophomore forward Donovan Sessoms in the 15th minute.

Sessoms picked it up just ahead of the halfway line and dribbled it quickly away past the Highlanders’ defense. He fired a shot past Highlander senior goalkeeper Carlos Gonzalez to make it 1-0 and give the Hornets the lead.

This was Sessoms’ first goal of the match which he said boosted his confidence and helped the Hornets form an offensive presence.

“I’ve been on kind of a dry spell recently, so it was nice to get two goals today,” Sessoms said. “Overall, I would say that both goals that I got were really good team goals. It wasn’t just me dribbling the entire team, or doing everything myself.”

In the 23rd minute sophomore defender Zac Giles flicked a pass inside the box to Sessoms, who bodied his defender and curled a shot in the upper left corner for a brace and a 2-0 lead.

The Hornets continued pushing off of their momentum as they became more aggressive towards the end of the first half, pressuring the Highlanders’ defense to gain possession.

“Our mentality in this game was we’re going to get on the front foot, we’re going to press higher up the field,” Linenberger said. “Let’s put them under pressure, let’s get them on the back foot and I thought we did a pretty good job of that today.”

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Sac State was pushing the needle offensively as they stayed on UC Riverside’s half for the remainder of the first half.

Early in the second half, a cross delivered in by UC Riverside’s freshman midfielder Tarek Hamideh settled in front of freshman defender Mika Sebastian Kosch. Kosch fired a shot in the right corner past senior goalkeeper Mac Learned to shrink the Hornets’ lead to one.

Sac State shut down UC Riverside’s offensive efforts ending the second half as they made coordinated stops and did not let in any major chances into the box.

Giles was a significant part of Sac State’s defense. He made smart defensive tackles and moved the ball up the pitch to help with offensive attacks.

“I felt good coming into the game, I knew I was gonna have a lot of space because they play five at the back,” Giles said. “A lot of space on the wings allowed me to be creative with the ball.”

Late in the second half, Highlanders’ senior midfielder Christian Ceja collided in an attempted header with Ramirez which resulted in Ceja being awarded a red.

It was an aggressive match with 30 fouls between each team. The ref also handed out four yellow cards to the Hornets and two yellow cards and a red card to the Highlanders. Sac State did not back down from UC Riverside’s intense presence, they fought to keep control of the game and had possession for the majority of the first half.

“A lot of times we’ll lose our heads and there were definitely some heated moments in this game, but to get the win and get out of here, no red cards for how aggressive the game was, is a good feeling,” Giles said. “Sometimes you gotta win scrappy, and that’s what we did today and that shows how good of a team we are.”

Sac State continues conference play on the road at Mustang Memorial Field against the Cal Poly Mustangs on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m.