FRESNO, CALIF. - On Saturday, September 10th the Sonoma State men's soccer team headed south for a road matchup with PacWest foe Fresno Pacific. The Seawolves star studded defense would continue to shine as they held the Sunbirds to just two shots on goal and recorded their fourth shutout of the season. Head coach Marcus Ziemer's back line is anchored by two veteran players in Matt Walleigh and Jason Hernandez as well as two rising stars in Johnnie Dodge and Federico Barbieri. 

Tonight, sophomore center back Federico Barbieri would make his impact felt on the defensive and offensive side of the ball as he converted a header off a corner kick to record his first collegiate goal. After sustained pressure for the majority of the first half, Seawolves freshman Michael Gray would earn a corner allowing fellow freshman Patrick Neill to whip in a left footed corner and see Barbieri fly into the six-yard box to get a head on it and give Sonoma State the 1-0 advantage. Heading into the half, SSU led the Sunbirds 4-3 in shots with the goal advantage. 

Nearly half an hour later, the Seawolves would strike again on a brilliant counter goal in transition. Some tight combination play from Fresno Pacific would put their forward in on goal but senior defender Jason Hernandez would make a great lunging block and allow a clearance from Jvon Cunningham to midfield. Near the Sunbirds bench, forward Bryan Rosales would challenge the 50/50 ball and strip FPU's center back, laying the ball off to Ulysses Vega and initiating the counter. Rosales never stopped his run and after a couple dribbles Vega would play a stellar through ball to Rosales and put him in on goal. A right footed shot one-on-one with the keeper would find the bottom right corner of the goal as the Seawolves sealed the game and took a 2-0 lead. Rosales's goal would go down as his first of the season. 

A skirmish in the 82nd minute though would put a damper on the Seawolves win as a reckless challenge from a Fresno Pacific player would result in a straight red from the referee but two red cards to Seawolves players would be assessed for coming off the bench as they were not in the field of play at the time. Nonetheless, Sonoma State would grind out the 2-0 road victory and improve to 2-1-2. Senior captain Sean Rohane would lead the team with three shots on the night while defenders Walleigh and Hernandez would record another full 90 minutes and help earn the team's fourth shutout of the season. 

"That was a great team win. It was a tough and gritty battle but we controlled the game and came out the better team tonight. They had a lot of crafty and dangerous players offensively but our defense has been rock solid and were able to handle them and record our fourth clean sheet of the season" (Ziemer).  

Sonoma State will look to extend their win streak to three games as they return home to take on PacWest member Dominican on Wednesday at 4:00 PM. Live stat, stream links, and tickets can be found at sonomaseawolves.com. Be sure to follow your Seawolves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest SSU athletics updates and information. Sonoma State athletics also has launched a new fan app in partnership with From Now On. Download the free app today in both the Apple and Google Play stores by searching Sonoma State Seawolves in the app store. @SonomaSeawolves | #NomaNation