Utah Tech men's soccer suffered a narrow 1-0 loss against UC San Diego Friday night despite a slew of late-game chances that nearly found the team an equalizer.
HOW IT HAPPENED: The match started less than ideal for the Trailblazers when Aby Gomez was shown yellow for a foul in the third minute of play. From there, UCSD was able to put together some chances and found some momentum in the match.
In the 8th minute, Utah Tech gave up an own goal off miscommunication between the defense and found themselves looking to stage a comeback. Throughout the rest of the first half, the two teams shared the ball, but neither side could get a good look at the goal.
In the 40th minute, Trailblazer midfielder Aby Gomez was shown a second yellow and was ejected from the match, forcing the Trailblazers to play a man down for more than half the match.
Despite being down a man, the Trailblazers came out in the second half and kept the Tritons from finding another goal on the night.
The Trailblazers had multiple looks at goal that nearly equalized. In the 71st minute, Jacob Zimmerman made a big stop to keep it 1-0. A minute later, Anthony Godinez had a shot blocked by Triton keeper Dominic Peters. Godinez's shot was a momentum shift for the Trailblazers as they pressed through the final 20 minutes for an equalizer.
Jimi Villasenor had a shot go just wide seconds after Godinez's attempt.
In the 78th minute, midfielder Niko Shumov had the best look of the night. After slaloming through the box, Shumov took a shot at goal but could not get it over a diving Peters, and his shot was blocked in the center of the net.
In the dying minutes of the match forward, Taylor Rogers had yet another shot go just high of tucking inside the far-post upper 90. Then, in the game's final moments, the Trailblazers had a set piece as the clock ran out. With all 11 men behind the ball, the Blazers served the ball into the box and got a head on it, but the chance was misdirected, and the Trailblazers could not equalize. After giving up the early own goal, Utah Tech failed to mount the comeback and headed back to St. George with a 1-0 loss.
STAT BREAKDOWN: The Trailblazers had seven shots with one on goal.
Taylor Rogers and
Anthony Godinez led the team with two shots apiece while
Jimi Villasenor,
Dunes Nielsen and
Niko Shumov rounded out the rest. Shumov's shot was the lone shot on goal of the night.
Jacob Zimmerman started and played the full 90 minutes in goal making three saves.
UC San Diego ended the match with seven shots and three shots on goal. The team was shown two yellow cards and their goalkeeper made three saves.
NOTES TO KNOW: Utah Tech now has a 0-3-0 record on the season.
UP NEXT: The Trailblazers will close out its four-game road stint with a Thursday night match at CSU Bakersfield on Sept. 8 at 8:00 pm (MT). The team will return home for two matches on Sept. 12 versus Santa Clara and Sept. 16 versus Sacramento State.
