CHICO, CALIF. - On Monday October 25th the Sonoma State men's soccer team faced off in a CCAA matchup against rival Chico State at Pleasant Valley High School. The originally scheduled contest on Sunday afternoon was moved off the campus of Chico State to Pleasant Valley High School due to extreme weather conditions. With the conditions worsening all over northern California all day Sunday, the game would remain at Pleasant Valley but be pushed to Monday to be played in friendlier playing conditions. The Seawolves entered the game on a tough stretch of games with losses to Dominguez Hills, Monterey Bay, and an overtime loss earlier in the weekend to Humboldt State. Despite the struggles, the overall competitiveness and difficulty of the conference still gave SSU a shot at making the postseason tournament as the next four teams outside of the top-6 were all within one game of each other and two games of the 6th and final spot. If that weren't enough, a rivalry game against Chico State would allow for anything to happen for head coach Marcus Ziemer and his squad. 

A clean playing surface on the turf field of Pleasant Valley HS would allow for an evenly matched game with little to no influence. The Seawolves would come out ready to play with a different look allowing Bryan Rosales and Lucas English to get a start in the midfield. The new look would work as SSU would strike first in the 13th minute after forcing a turnover in the back line of the Wildcats. After a long ball from Miles Hodgson would roll all the way to the Chico State keeper, he would distribute the ball to his back line and attempt to build up possession from the back. Chico State's center back would target his checking midfielder who would return the ball back first time. Sean Rohane and Bryan Rosales would be applying the pressure and after the back pass from the Wildcat midfielder, Rosales would press the center back and pick the ball off of him to continue on into the box for a one on one opportunity.

Rosales would continue onto the ball and hit it first time with his left foot from the left side of the box and would see it fiz to the lower right side. The ball would strike the lower right post where it would then deflect back into play and then off of the trailing Chico State defender into the back of the net. Despite going down statistically as an own goal, Rosales certainly put in the effort to force the unfortunate mistake and create the goal for SSU.  

The pressure would continue for the Seawolves as they created chance after chance and started to hit their stride. Despite a controversial offisde call shortly after the first goal, the game entered halftime with the Seawolves up 1-0. Weather would play a role yet again this weekend as a lightning storm would delay the game for nearly thirty minutes. As both teams came out of the delay, Ziemer and his group had their eyes set on getting the win and seeing the game out. The shots would continue to pile up for both teams as 16 combined shots were recorded in the second half alone. Luckily for the Seawolves only one shot of the Wildcats 8 would find the target and SSU's stingy defense would help keep the game 1-0 in their favor. After a flurry of last minute corner kicks and deep throw in's, Sonoma State would hang on for the 1-0 shutout victory to get back in the win column and improve their CCAA record to 2-5-1. "We bent but we didn't break today. We came out really hot in the first half with lots of meaningful chances on goal. It's great to end a wild weekend like this with time changes and weather delays with a solid team win. Lots of guys stepped up today with a couple guys battling injuries and we really showed our depth and versatility as a team. We still have meaningful games to play and are well in the mix so thats exciting" (Ziemer, HC).

Sean Rohane would finish with a game high six shots in the contest. Matt Lee and Brian Field would finish with two-a piece. Freshman Lucas English also stepped up in the midfield for the Seawolves as he helped defend and facilitate all game long.    

After yet another overtime game and defeat against Humboldt State the previous Friday, the Seawolves were able to bounce back in a big way and grab a win to close out the weekend before returning home for their final two games at Seawolf Soccer Field. SSU will have their final two home games of the season with Stanislaus State on Friday and then senior day on Sunday against Cal State East Bay. The following week the Seawolves will take on SF State in San Francisco to close out the season and have a shot at the CCAA tournament. For full conference standings click HERE.   

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