SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In the only exhibition match of the 2014 campaign, the Santa Clara men's soccer team tied San Jose State 1-1 with a late goal by Edson Cardona in Buck Shaw Stadium on Saturday night.
The Broncos head on the road for their next competition where they take on University of Nebraska Omaha on Fri., Aug. 29 at 5:30 p.m. and Creighton on Sun., Aug. 31 at 5:00 p.m. in Omaha, Neb.
"When you play in your first match and have a lot of new players, you try to figure out what players you can count on in the matches that count," said Bronco head coach Cameron Rast. "We saw some good performances out of a number of players, and we saw experiences that we need to learn from. We now have four things to focus on that we will carry throughout the season: starts of games and getting on top of the match; winning transitional moments that are being challenged by both teams; set pieces, especially the attacking ones; and lastly, the beginnings and ends of halves. We have to be ready for those critical moments."
Santa Clara outshot San Jose State 8-6 with seven shots coming in the second half for the Broncos. Each teams walked away with three shots on goal.
The start of the match showed the strength of the defensive line for the Broncos. Led by goalkeeper and captain Kendall McIntosh, Santa Clara did not allow one shot on goal from the Spartans in the first 25 minutes. McIntosh ended the first half with two saves.
The best opportunity in first half for Santa Clara came from the foot of Satoshi Chaffin in the 31st minute from a through ball from Jared Hegardt. With one defender to beat, the freshman from Puyallup, Wash. shot just wide.
With multiple substitutions for both teams in the night exhibition, the first half ended in a 0-0 stalemate.
San Jose State came out blazing in the second half with an early goal by sophomore Rory Knibbs in the 46th minute. A through ball came from the half way line to split the Santa Clara defense where Knibbs was able to put it low in the corner passed McIntosh.
In the 50th minute, Santa Clara fired back with a shot right outside the 18-yard box from Carlos Delgadillo into the diving hands of the Spartan goalkeeper.
Another exciting opportunity came for the Broncos in the 55th minute from a deflected cross out wide to the foot of Glenn Vass. The senior's shot was blocked and awarded Santa Clara with a corner kick.
In the 70th minute, Edson Cardona played a beautiful long ball into Cesar Rocha at the top of the 18-yard box. Two minutes later, the Broncos displayed great skill handling the ball around the final third of the opponent's box. Cardona was able to put a cross in from the baseline away from the Spartans' goalkeeper, but sailed just passed the head of James Huffer near the far post.
The tying goal for Santa Clara came in the 85th minute from a free kick 30 yards out. The ball bounced around a swarm of blue and white and landed at the left foot of Max Ornstil. The junior from Oakland, Calif. found Cardona at the 6-yard box where the sophomore put it in the back of the net.
Santa Clara now leads the all-time matchup 24-20-5 against San Jose State with the first meeting coming in 1967. In 2013, the Broncos edged out the Spartans 1-0 with a goal from Huffer in the 83rd minute.
At the end of the exhibition, Rast stressed the importance of being consistent this season and was pleased with his team's overall performance.
"I'm very excited about Satoshi Chaffin," said Rast after the match. "He has very dynamic movement and got some great minutes. Carlos Delgadillo I thought did a great job playing for us. Steve Eneme was strong and held the ball very well for us up top. In addition, I thought a number of the returners played well for us today. Jared Hegardt played quite well. There was nothing Kendall could have done on the goal so I thought he gave a solid performance keeping the rest of the team focused on getting the goal back."
Games Notes: Attendance 425 … A total of seven yellow cards were given.
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