BOX SCORE

ROHNERT PARK, Calif- Taylor Varnadore scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season, including a goal just six minutes into the match as Sonoma State, despite giving up a late goal, defeated visiting Cal State Monterey Bay, 2-1, in California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) men's soccer action on Sunday afternoon in Rohnert Park. The Seawolves remain undefeated in conference play at 4-0-0 (5-1-0 overall). The Otters fall to 1-3-1 and 1-2-1.

Sonoma State has now outscored its conference opponents 16-1 in four matches, giving up its first goal in CCAA action on Sunday. Varnadore, the reigning CCAA Freshman of the Year, has a team leading six goals this season (four of them this weekend), upping his career total to 16.

"We started really well," SSU head coach Marcus Ziemer said. "What makes it tough for opposing teams is that we have so many weapons. They can't just key in on one player. Everybody tries to stop us with different defensive schemes, but we have gotten much better at making adjustments and figuring it out during the game."

Varnadore struck for his first goal of the match, just six minutes, five seconds after kickoff. It was the result of a nice diagonal pass from Ebby Lombardi and a great cross from Trevor Hurst, who found Varnadore flying in to head the ball past Cal State Monterey Bay goalkeeper Sam Campanelli. For the remaining 39 minutes, the Otters held the Seawolves' high-powered offense to just four more shot attempts while SSU allowed just two that sailed wide.

With a 1-0 lead heading into the second half, Sonoma State exerted more pressure on Cal State Monterey Bay, but couldn't convert until the 74th minute when Varnadore again came flying into the goal box after a corner kick by Hurst on the far side.

"It's great to get Varnadore scoring again," Ziemer said. "He scored four goals this weekend and is back on track after a slow start at the beginning of the season."

The goal that put Sonoma State up 2-0 would prove to be some huge insurance for the Seawolves. The Otters cashed in a goal at 86:11 when Beau Villanueva lofted a cross pass and found Alex Shuler in behind the SSU defense. Shuler then launched a shot beyond the reach of Andrew Ball and CSUMB trailed by one at 2-1. However, the visitors never got another chance to score and Sonoma State held on to keep its perfect conference record in tact.

Ziemer added, "If we had gotten the second goal before half and then a third (later in the match), then I think we could have put the game away but they hung around and made it interesting with the goal in the 87th minute. You have to give them credit. They never quit and kept fighting until the end, even though it was much warmer than they are used to (88 degrees by the end of the game with no breeze). They were under a lot of pressure."

Varnadore and Justin Ferreira, who notched a hat trick on Friday against Cal State East Bay, led the Sonoma State offense with three shots apiece. Sean Callahan and Jomed Tejan attempted two shots each as the Seawolves outshot the Otters, 12-8. Ball made two saves between the posts while his counterpart, Campanelli, made two saves as well.

"We can relax for the rest of today and tomorrow is our day off, but then it's back to work to prepare for Cal Poly Pomona. They are a very experienced team with a lot of talent and we have to be sharp," Ziemer exclaimed.

Sonoma State will now hit the road for a four-match road trip, playing at Cal Poly Pomona (Friday) and at San Francisco State (Sunday) next weekend before wrapping it up with matches at Humboldt State (Sept. 29) and at Cal State Stanislaus (Oct. 2). The Seawolves next home match will be on Oct. 7 when they host Cal State L.A.