As the 59th minute of the match commenced on Thursday, the University of the Pacific held a one-goal lead.
Tearing across the field was Sacramento State freshman midfielder Allbranly Gue, passing up the shot to sophomore forward Sean Battistessa. Battistessa struck the ball off his right foot.
A Pacific defender slid down to block the ball, but the kick hit the defender’s hand.
A penalty kick awaited. Now standing over the ball, Gue patiently watched the keeper’s movements during the fleeting moments before the kick.
“I was thinking of Cristiano Ronaldo, even though he is under pressure from the crowd screaming, he is able to concentrate on the moment,” Gue said. “I was thinking of picking one side and staying with it. I was just focused on scoring the goal”.
Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his body and shuffled his feet, waiting for the whistle. As the whistle sounded, he drew one last breath before making his move.
Gue launched a strike off his right foot. The ball curved to the bottom left corner of the goal, tying the game with Gue’s first collegiate goal and bringing life back into the Hornets.
“Today, I thought it was his most complete game,” Head coach Michael Linenberger said. “For a freshman to step up in a moment like that, cool as a cucumber? Fantastic. I thought he was probably the man of the match for us tonight.”
A little over a minute later, senior goalkeeper Andres Rosales gathered the ball from a corner kick and threw it up the right pitch. Dicing through defenders, freshman forward Ronan Rattigan slid the ball to freshman forward Zach Looney.
Looney carried his momentum up the pitch, looking for crossers and staving off a defender. Looney sent a hellacious cross off the right foot that streaked through the Stockton sky and landed on the left foot of junior forward Zac Giles.
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Giles charged into the left side of the box,right outside the Pacific defender’s line of sight. Delivering a diving one-touch volley off the left foot, he slid the ball inside the left goal post, just in front of the opposing keeper.
“When he [Looney] got the ball, I was yelling for it,” Giles said. “As soon as he put his head up to look, I knew it was coming. He put it on the money and made my job of finishing the goal easy.”
Within a minute and thirty-six seconds, the Hornets had crawled their way back into the lead,stealing the momentum out of the home crowd. The Sac State attack had finally emerged.
“Today we were able to win second balls and turn them over because of the work we put in,” Giles said. “If we keep that up, we will continue to be dangerous on the attack with the talent we have.”
The Hornets did not let the moment go. Rosales made numerous saves in the last 10 minutes of the match to keep the Hornets on top.
Tiger forwards swarmed the Hornets in the 82nd minute, leading to a desperation kick-save off a forward alone in the box. As the ball shot out into the left pitch, Rosales gathered himself, ready for the immediate cross that followed.
Seeing the ball swung towards the box, Rosales launched his arms towards the threat, ultimately falling onto the ball and subduing the attack.
“Yeah, he had a really good game tonight,” Linenberger said. “I thought he was clean with all the crosses that came in, and he made a couple of really big saves for us.”
These saves sealed Sac State’s first win of the season.
It was a complete game throughout. Sac State battled through the adversity of an early goal to come back, 2-1.
“I feel that we’ve worked hard at times during all the games,” Linenberg said, “but not consistently from start to finish. And I thought we brought that today.”
Sac State looks to bring the same play on the road against the University of San Francisco on Monday, Sept. 15.
