MORAGA, Calif. - The Saint Mary's men's soccer team headed to the South Bay for a Saturday night showdown with the Santa Clara Broncos for their second WCC match of the week. After falling to Oregon State on Wednesday, the Gaels bounced back to put together one of their best offensive performances of the season, recording their second highest shot total of the year. Head coach
Adam Cooper and his squad really turned up the heat in the second half with ten total shots and several dangerous chances on goal but failed to find the back of the net to end in a scoreless draw.
FIRST HALF SMC 0-0 SCU
Early in the first half, the Broncos generated the better chances and were more threatening. Santa Clara made it clear they wanted to target their forward's feet and play off of him at the top of the Gaels penalty box. As a result, sophomore defender
Fynn Allmon made a pair of clutch 1-v-1 challenges to deny scoring chances for the Broncos. Cooper went with a three-man backline once again in Saturday's match but pushed junior
Bastian Toelhoej into the midfield and had
Jackson Fyda,
Nick Strangio and Allmon anchor the team's backline. Strangio and Fyda have been very solid in recent matches and Cooper continues to reward them with defensive starts, Strangio his eighth and Fyda his fifth of the season.
The game would start to flip though in the final 15 minutes of the first half as Saint Mary's was finding nice success down their left side with
Luke Lawrence,
Tyler Hardin Jack Vestberg and
Cesar Batres. Vestberg was giving the Gaels a nice target presence up top and Lawrence and Hardin put together good combination play to keep the Broncos off balanced and serve in some dangerous balls from the left. The Gaels had two shots blocked in the Broncos penalty box, one from
Jude Zamora and the other from
Wade Muttitt as they took some nice momentum into the half. Just seven total shots and one save for freshman
Sam Bentley would end the half scoreless.
FINAL SMC 0-0 SCU
From the jump, it would be all Gaels as Saint Mary's went on to generate ten shots in the half and force a game high five saves from the Broncos keeper. The combination play really started to flow for
Adam Cooper and his group as they looked as balanced and synced up offensively as they have all season. In the 65th minute, junior forward
Maxwell Farnum would get in on the action with a great individual run to the endline and find
Justin Sosa on a cutback ball to the penalty spot. Sosa had to adjust for the pass but rifled a shot that was deflected and sailed just wide of the top corner for the team's best chance in the match. Farnum was a great spark off the bench to start the second half with some great individual skill on the ball and really caused problems for the Santa Clara defenders.
Saint Mary's had a few key performers throughout the match and one of them off the bench was senior midfielder
Cade Cowan. Cowan has battled injury all season long but was calm and poised coming off the bench and helped create several dangerous scoring opportunities in the second half. In the 81st minute, a Santa Clara defender would make an errant pass to turn it over in the middle of the field an allow the Gaels to get out in transition. Cowan collected the loose ball and played a solid first-time pass to
Cesar Batres in the middle of the field with loads of space to start the attack. Cowan would then go on a stellar 40-yard run down the right side of the field and Batres would loft a ball over the top to find Cowan. There was contact and a decision to be made by the referee but Cowan would get a right foot to the ball but see his shot trickle just wide of the net.
The Gaels backline was stellar in the second half with numerous 1-v-1 challenges and headers won in the box.
Jackson Fyda has brought a great tenacity to the team's defense in recent weeks after joining the program as a transfer from Bradley University. Allmon and Strangio were very solid as well and that flexibility has allowed
Bastian Toelhoej to step into the team's midfield. Freshman
Cesar Batres recorded his second 90-minute game of the season and has show great versatility as a two-way midfielder. Muttitt and Zamora finished with two shots each and
Justin Sosa led the team with four shots in his 55 minutes off the bench.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's improves to 1-6-5 overall and 0-2-2 in WCC play. The Gaels will enter their bye week and get some much needed rest before returning to the pitch on Tuesday, October 22nd for a non-conference match against Cal. Catch all the action on the ACC Network and get your tickets at smcgaels.com.
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