TURLOCK, Calif. – Eric Alvarado connected on his fourth penalty kick of the season late in the first half to put the Sonoma State men's soccer team up 1-0 late in the first half, but top-seeded UC San Diego rallied for the equalizer midway through the second half and scored the game-winner three and a half minutes into overtime to capture the 2016 CCAA Men's Soccer Tournament title on Sunday afternoon at Warrior Stadium in Turlock.

Click here for the postgame press conference with SSU head coach Marcus Ziemer and junior Eric Alvarado.
 
The Seawolves (10-4-5), who entered the weekend as the sixth-ranked team in the West Region, will now await word on their NCAA postseason fate as the 2016 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship Tournament field will be unveiled via a live selection show on NCAA.com Monday at 3:30 pm.  Sonoma will need to remain in the Top 6 of the West Region in order to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010.
 
Meanwhile, the CCAA-champion Tritons (16-2-2) also captured their first-ever CCAA tournament banner and is likely to be one of two hosts for next weekend's NCAA West Regional, Simon Fraser being the other.
 
With 11 minutes left in the first half, Dane Shaffar served a long pass downfield, a Triton defender put his head on it, lost sight of it as momentum took him away from the ball in flight, Luis Mendoza located it in the air, headed it forward towards Maury Lopez streaking into the box, and while UCSD's goalkeeper Cameron McElfresh was about to repossess control with ease, a UCSD defender threw a shoulder into Lopez in the box, warranting the whistle for a penalty kick.  Eric Alvarado stepped up and drilled the attempt into the upper right hand corner of the net, just beyond the outstretched arms of a diving McElfresh  It was Alvarado's fourth made penalty kick of the season and it resulted in a 1-0 lead for the Seawolves.
 
With 33:30 left in regulation, UCSD broke away from the defense and rocketed a shot from the left corner of the box, but Mitch North made a gorgeous diving save to his left to preserve the one-goal lead.
 
With under 25 minutes left, UCSD's Uly de la Cal threw the ball into the box from the right sideline and a Sonoma player was able to head it out, but the Tritons' Jonathan Stoop, with his back towards the goal, kicked the ball up and back over his head from 10 yards out. The ball eventually snuck just inside the upper left corner of the post, a circus-type shot that caught everyone off guard, but it pulled the Tritons even with the Seawolves at 1-1.
 
With 12 minutes to go, UC San Diego's Justice Duerksen served a corner kick into the box and a header by Nolan Mac cleared the crossbar by a matter of inches, allowing the Seawolves to breathe a sigh of relief, but only momentarily as UCSD continued a relentless offensive assault on a stingy SSU defense the rest of the afternoon.
 
With 2:02 left, Armando Coronel was shown his second yellow card of the afternoon on a foul in front of the UCSD bench, resulting in his ejection from the contest and the Seawolves were forced to play with only 10 men the rest of the way.
 
Neither team could net the go-ahead goal in regulation, so the tournament championship would be decided in overtime.  It only took 3:30 into the extra period for UC San Diego to complete the comeback when Malek Bashti stole the ball, dribbled upfield past two SSU defenders before pushing it up to Sam Palano for the game winner, a shot from 10 yards out that got past North's diving attempt and settled in the right corner of the net, setting off the Tritons' on-field celebration.
 
UC San Diego outshot Sonoma State 15-3, including 4-2 in shots on goal.  A total of 39 fouls were called, 26 of them whistled on the Seawolves.
 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:  Sonoma State is now 9-10-1 all-time in the CCAA Tournament, and 2-1 against UC San Diego in tournament matches … This was the first time in seven CCAA Tournament Final appearances that Sonoma played a team not named Cal State Dominguez Hills … In those seven Final appearances, including Sunday's tilt with UC San Diego, four went to overtime, and SSU is now 1-2-1 in CCAA Tournament Final games that feature extra time.