ARCATA, Calif. -- Trailing by a goal after the first 45 minutes of action, the Sonoma State men's soccer team came out of the intermission on a mission.
Outshooting host Humboldt State 16-7 the rest of the way, one of the shots off the foot of
TJ Perez evened the game at one goal apiece in the 80th minute to force overtime, then
Josh Sanchez took the rebound from
Jose Avalos' shot on a breakaway and sent it home in the 97th minute to lift the Seawolves to a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory on Wednesday at College Creek Field in Arcata.
Sonoma rises to 4-2-1 this season, earning its first CCAA victory of the season (1-2-0). The Lumberjacks fell to 1-6-0 (0-3-0 CCAA).
"We needed that win," said head coach
Marcus Ziemer. "I thought we were in control of the match for the last 60 minutes, but both teams had a few chances to win the game and it could've gone either way."
"(Humboldt State) is very well-organized and their head coach, Fred Jungemann, is a former assistant of mine so they were organized to play against us and they played great football," added Ziemer.
With the score tied at 1-1 in overtime, Humboldt State nearly scored the game winner when the ball bounced around the box in Sonoma State territory before being cleared out, which led to Avalos sprinting down the left side of the field with possession of the ball. Nearing the endline in enemy territory with a defender at his side, he fired a shot at HSU keeper Christopher Cherns, who deflected the save right at Sanchez, who was running right down the middle of the field to one-touch the ball into the net.
It was all due in part by the work of Perez and
Brenton Frame, who worked to get the equalizer at 80:03 after trailing for much of the contest -- Humboldt scored at 13:46 to capture the early lead.
In the end, the Seawolves outshot the Lumberjacks 19-9, including 13-6 in the second half and 3-1 in the overtime period.
Mitch North made one save, while his counterpart, Cherns, made five stops.
Sonoma State will host archrival Chico State on Sunday with kickoff scheduled for 2:00 pm at the Seawolf Soccer Field.
