Nov. 7, 2003
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State earned a big 3-2 victory over Air Force on Friday to clinch a berth in the MPSF tournament. The Falcons tallied the first goal of the game, but SDSU responded with three goals in the second half to pick up their fourth come-from-behind win of the season. Blake Perry scored two goals and Heath Creager added the final tally for SDSU. The Aztecs are 8-6-3 and 2-1-2 in the MPSF.
Air Force, the highest scoring team in the MPSF, scored the only goal of the first half at the 32:23 mark. It did not take the Aztecs long to get on the board in the second period as Perry took a pass from Kenny Fechner and put it into the net from 10 yards out just under three minutes into the half. Perry would strike again 11 minutes later, with Dione Scott picking up the assist. Heath Creager tallied the Aztecs final goal at the 61:53 mark with an assist from Kevin Sapanli. The Aztecs then held off the high-scoring Falcons down the stretch to earn the win.
Perry, who has scored three goals this year, joins Heath Creager and Kevin Sapanli as the only Aztecs' with multiple goal games on the year. Fechner's assist gives him nine on the season which ranks second in the MPSF, while Creager leads the team and is fifth in the league with seven goals. Sapanli has tallied a point in four of the Aztecs last six games.
SDSU will host New Mexico on Sunday in the regular season finale at 1:00 pm. The final game of the regular season will determine who receives the second seed in the tournament, with the winner also earning a first-round bye and a matchup in the tournament semifinal. A tie with UNM would give the Lobos the second seed and SDSU the third seed, as they hold the tiebreaker with UNLV by earning a 3-1 win earlier in the year at Las Vegas. The champion of the MPSF Tournament earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.