SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara men's soccer ended the exhibition portion of the 2016 season with a 2-0 victory over Sacramento State at Stevens Stadium on Saturday night. The teams played the standard game time of two 45-minute periods. Junior Carlos Delgadillo, the 2015 leading scorer in the West Coast Conference picked up where he left off last season, scoring both goals for the Broncos in the win.
"We have a little bit more work to do," head coach Cameron Rast said. "There's still some pieces that have to get sharper before we play next Friday. They will get sharper. We'll have time to work on that. We got everybody some minutes again, which is a very important part of our exhibitions, to see how guys performed. Overall, I thought it was a better performance, a shutout and a couple of goals is good but I don't think we can be completely satisfied. We will need to be better when we go to the Midwest next week."
Santa Clara put the pressure on Sacramento State from the onset, winning five corner kicks in the first 12 minutes of the match. Senior Ryan Masch had a couple shots but both were blocked by the Hornets defense. Finally, in the 19th minute the Broncos broke through. On a quick counter attack, sophomore Andres Jimenez carried the ball up the middle of the field and played a great through ball to Delgadillo. Delgadillo took a touch around the goalkeeper who came off his line and scored on the open net at the 19:26 mark.
GOAL! Jimenez played a great through ball to Delgadillo who took a touch around the GK and scored on the open net! pic.twitter.com/3XZ8EYO150
— SCU Men's Soccer (@SCUBroncoSoccer) August 21, 2016
At 26:55, Delgadillo got his second goal of the game. Starting off a corner kick, the ball was then played into the box when senior Parker Holland headed it to Delgadillo who scored again on an open net as the Sacramento State goalkeeper was caught out of position.
"I was happy with our start today," Rast said. "I thought we created some good chances off the bat. I thought we got on top of the game and then we scored our couple of goals. I would have liked to see us be a little more clinical in a couple of our chances that we had. In terms of our movement and some of our play, I thought it was very good. It was something that we built on in the last couple days between our two games."
At the end of the first half, the Broncos totaled 10 shots, won nine corner kicks and were called offside once. Sophomore goalkeeper Dakota Havlick made one save on Sacramento State's lone shot of the first period. The Hornets made two saves and won one corner kick.
The second half began with corner kicks for both teams and two shots for Sacramento State but nothing to show for them. In the 54th minute, junior Satoshi Chaffin made a run up the left wing, cut back as the Hornets defender slid by and fired a shot on goal but was denied by the side post.
With more substitutions coming in the second half, the action went to back and forth but neither team created many dangerous scoring opportunities. Nate Nugen of Sacramento State was presented a yellow card for his foul on sophomore Matthew Sipowicz to prevent him from retrieving a dangerous through ball. On the ensuing set piece from a few yards outside the 18-yard box, Delgadillo took a shot but his shot was off target.
In total, SCU tallied 14 shots and four were on target. Goalkeepers Havlick and senior Pasha Hashemi each recorded a save. The Broncos won 11 corner kicks, committed seven fouls and were called offside once. Sacramento State took six shots and two were on target. The Hornets were offside once, called for eight fouls and won seven corner kicks.
"I was happy with the defensive effort tonight," Rast said. "There were times when we probably gave them too much space or they got in behind us. So, our ability to read the service from the opponent and to tighten up some spaces needs to be better. I thought today we may have gotten away with it a little bit but it will be good to review that and see it on film and then adjust that in our training."
On Friday, August 26 at 5:30 p.m. PT the 2016 regular season begins for the Broncos when they head to Madison, Wisc. to take on the Badgers of Wisconsin. Then on Monday the 29th at 4 p.m. PT, the squad will square off with Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.
SCU wins 2-0! Next up is the real deal on Friday at Wisconsin - https://t.co/GcYAochwR8 #StampedeTogther pic.twitter.com/Sbs37plX2T
— SCU Men's Soccer (@SCUBroncoSoccer) August 21, 2016
