Oct. 10, 2004
SPOKANE, Wash. - Sophomore forward Hector Guzman recorded his third straight game-winner with a goal in the 56th minute to seal the fourth-ranked Santa Clara men's soccer team's 1-0 victory over Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash. on Sunday afternoon. With the victory, the Broncos improve to 11-1-0 on the season and 4-0-0 in West Coast Conference action.
For the fourth straight contest, the Bronco defense shut out its opponent, as SCU has not allowed a goal in the last 399 minutes of play. Each of those contests have been conference matches as the Broncos have not given up a goal in conference action.
"Any time you go on the road and get two wins, it's a great thing," said head coach Cameron Rast. "Its especially satisfying in our conference where the competition is so tough. I am very pleased with the team's performance this weekend. Hopefully, we can continue to build on this success and improve in the future."
Guzman's goal was a hard shot from 18-yards straightway that sailed to the upper right corner of the net and over the out-stretched hands of Bulldog goalkeeper Sean Sosnovec. It was the third consecutive game-winner for the San Jose, Costa Rica native. Guzman also came off the bench to score second-half game-winners against San Francisco and at Portland on Friday night.
Sosnovec had three solid saves in the scoreless opening half. Jason Pan's header off a free kick at 40:31 was knocked down by Sosnovec, and Keith DeVey had the rebound ticketed for the left post only to have Sosnovec get there in time to prevent the goal and knock the shot out of bounds. Less than two minutes later DeVey had a point-blank shot low to the five hole that Sosnovec got in front of and DeVey kicked the rebound wide left.
Early in the second half Jason Cunliffe took a shot from the right wing that was deflected by Sosnovec at the right post and knocked out of bounds. At the 60-minute mark Chris Clark tried to dent the net with a header off a corner but was denied, and two minutes later Sosnovec made back-to-back stops on DeVey as he couldn't bury the rebound after Sosnovec thwarted the initial shot.
The Bulldogs had their scoring chances, only to be denied by senior goalkeeper Kent Harkness who posted his fifth and sixth shutouts of the year by blanking Portland and Gonzaga by identical 1-0 scores to sweep the Pacific Northwest schools for the weekend. As a team, SCU has held eight opponents scoreless in 2004.
Santa Clara continued to show its strength offensively as well, out-shooting the Bulldogs, 16-7. 10 Bronco shots were on goal as Sonsovec posted six saves in the match.
The Broncos will continue their WCC road trip this weekend, traveling to Southern California. On Friday evening, SCU will take on San Diego in a 7 p.m. contest, before traveling to Loyola Marymount on Sunday for a 3 p.m. showdown of the conference's two unbeaten schools in WCC play.
