Broncos Topped by Portland; Edson Cardona Notches Third Goal of the Season

Broncos Topped by Portland; Edson Cardona Notches Third Goal of the Season

Click here for photos of the match by Denis Concordel

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Bronco men's soccer team (6-8-0) fell against the Portland Pilots (8-6-0) with a final score of 4-1. The Broncos are now 3-3-0 in WCC play and the Pilots stand in conference at 3-3-0.

"At halftime we talked about how we need to battle for this win," said Bronco head coach Cameron Rast. "We knew we had to grind through this game and there are certain times in a game like the red card and the penalty that can deflate the team and we allowed that to deflate us today and we need to do a better job at dealing with that. We're disappointed in the result, but we'll have to regroup."

Edson Cardona scored the lone-goal for the Broncos, notching his third of the season. The true freshman from San Jose, Calif. has made an immediate impact for the Broncos with seven points so far this season, second highest on the team.

The Broncos will have a bye next weekend but then head out on the road to face the Portland Pilots again to start the second half. The match will be Fri., Nov. 1 at 7p.m. at Portland as the WCC Men's Soccer Game of the Week, which you can watch live on TheWtv.

In the 19th min., David Torres took on a Portland defender down the left side flank for a cross in front of the goalmouth to Cardona.  Cardona juked both his defender and the Portland goalkeeper for a one-time heel pass to the back of the net making the score 1-0 for the Broncos.

Harrison Hanley who led the Broncos to a two-goal victory in their last match vs. Gonzaga beat his defender several times down the line in the first half giving the Broncos good opportunities in front of the net.

With nine minutes left in the first half, a free kick for the Pilots about 25 yards out from the Santa Clara goal was hit around the Broncos' wall by Portland's Eddie Sanchez to slide in the bottom right corner of the net making the score 1-1.

In the 57th min., a questionable call gave Matt Escobar a red card and Portland a penalty kick in the box. Sanchez put away the penalty kick for Portland making the score 2-1 in favor of the Pilots.

Right off the kick off, the Broncos created an exciting opportunity as Hanley dribbled down the line to cross the ball to the head of Carlos Montes, which just narrowly missed the frame. 

With 16 minutes left in the match, Portland notched two goals. The first was a cross in from Matthew Coffey for Steven Corbett to put in the back of the net. The second goal came only seconds later when Sanchez dribbled past the Broncos' goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh in a one-vs-one situation to slot far post to give the Pilots a 4-1 lead.

The Broncos were hard at work in the remaining minutes of the match attacking the Pilots' box but were unable to put one away. The men ended the match with a final score of 4-1 in favor of the Pilots. 

Game Notes: A yellow card caution was issued to Portland's Aaron Caprio and Eddie Sanchez … a yellow card caution was issued to Santa Clara's Parker Holland and Max Ornstil … a red card ejection was issued to Santa Clara's Matt Escobar … attendance was 545.