Nov. 8, 2002
San Diego - On a rainy, windswept SDSU Sports Deck, the San Diego State men's soccer team dropped its season finale to Gonzaga, 4-2, before 67 hearty soles in attendance for Senior Day. The game was a tale of two halves, with the elements playing as big a part as the players in the final outcome. With the wind blowing from south to north, each team had the wind at its back for a half, and each used that advantage to score.
With the wind and rain behind them, the Aztecs (4-13-2) went ahead in the 23rd minute when senior Tyler Tinling let go a low shot from some 45 yards that skipped past Bulldog goalie Mike McCarthy.
SDSU doubled its lead some 17 minute later, this time on a free kick from 35 yards out on the left. Tinling again hit a low drive that was deflected by teammate Paul Szelfer into the goal. It was Szefler's team-leading seventh goal of the season.
In the second half, Gonzaga (4-9-1) wasted little time in getting back into the contest, A corner kick from Jeff Lane found the head of Taylor McCool, who guided the ball past SDSU keeper Brian Barnes just a minute-and-a-half after the break.
The tying goal came 15 minutes later with some good fortune aiding the Gonzaga score. A free kick from the right was sent in as a low cross by the Bulldog's Matt Prichard. The ball hit an Aztec defender 12 yards in front of goal, deflecting past a wrong-footed Barnes and into the net at 61:22.
Just over a minute after that, Pritchard got a goal of his own when his shot from 22 yards skipped past Barnes and settled in the lower left corner. Gonzaga put the game away when Tryggvi Bjornsson netted his first of the season with a long free kick that once again skipped on the grass and into the goal.
Both Gonzaga's McCarthy and SDSU's Barnes finished the game with three saves. The game was evenly contested over the 90 minutes with the Bulldogs taking just two more shots that the home side (13-11).
The game marked the final appearance of six San Diego State seniors as the Aztecs put the wraps on their 2002 campaign. Those six seniors included goalie Brian Barnes, forward Ryan Curtis, defenders Ryan Cook, Adam Kulpa, and Abraham Martinez, plus midfielder Tyler Tinling. Barnes finished his tenure at SDSU as the team's season and career saves leader while Tinling was the Aztecs' number-two goal scorer this fall.