Check out photos from the game (Credit Denis Concordel)
SANTA CLARA, Calif.— Santa Clara men's soccer fell in their home opener to SIUE 2-1 in double overtime Friday night at Buck Shaw Stadium. Santa Clara is now 0-1-0 while SIUE is now 1-0-0 in the 2013 season.
The Broncos will be playing in a mid-week game on Tues., Sept. 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Washington.
"We learned some lessons about the intensity of what the college season brings," said Bronco head coach Cameron Rast. "It's hard to replicate that any other time, even in our Spring season. The energy that SIUE brought tonight surprised us but it's hard to be ready for that. Once we came to compete, we did well but unfortunately it took us a whole half to figure that out."
The Broncos were outshot by the Cougars 21-7 and shots on goal were 8-4. Carlos Montes lead the offense with four shots including three on goal. He scored the lone Santa Clara goal of the night.
The Cougars finished the first goal of the night when Justin Bilyeu scored a left footed free kick in the 14th minute that was placed right outside the Bronco box.
Montes served a free kick from the left side with 19 minutes left in the first half right to the head of Phillip Muscarella but was punched away by the Cougar's keeper, John Berner.
Five minutes into the second half a hard tackle by Max Ornstil lead to a clash on the field resulting in a red card to Santa Clara's Jared Hegardt and a yellow card caution to SIUE's Brett Lane. The Broncos played with only 10 players on the field for the remainder of the game.
A little over a minute later Montes broke loose past the Cougar defense to slot the ball in the left corner of the net for the Bronco's first goal of the season.
Bronco freshman Brennan Castro took an exciting 25-yard floating shot from the left flank in the 75th min. that narrowly missed the right upper corner of the net.
After regulation play the men were tied 1-1 and headed into overtime play.
The best opportunity in the first period of overtime for the Broncos' came when Muscarella had a diving header in front of the face of the goal from a crossed ball.
The game-winning goal came in the 103rd minute when the ball was sent into the Bronco box and Christian Volesky placed it into the back of the net past Kendall McIntosh to give the Cougars a 2-1 win.
Game Notes: James Huffer, Matt Steurer, Brennan Castro, Edson Cardona and Victor Magana saw their first minutes as Broncos … Attendance was 502 … A total of six yellow cards and one red card were given.
Written by Lauren Matheson '13, Sports Assistant
