Oct. 4, 2009
CORVALLIS, Ore. -
The San Diego State men's soccer team had its six-game unbeaten streak snapped with a 2-1 overtime loss to Oregon State Sunday afternoon in Corvallis, Ore. The loss dropped the Aztecs to 3-3-3 overall and 0-1-1 in the Pac-10, while the Beavers, who are ranked No. 37 in the latest Top Drawer Soccer poll, improved to 5-3-2 and 1-1-0.
The loss was the first by SDSU since it fell to San Diego, 1-0, on Sept. 6 on an own goal. Since that game, San Diego State is 3-1-3.
The Aztecs once again played without senior leading scorer Evan Toft (Aurora, Colo.). In addition, redshirt senior tri-captain Matt McManus (Santa Clarita, Calif.) was scratched, while redshirt senior tri-captain Jamel Wallace (San Diego/Oceanside HS) was limited to just 56 minutes after taking two hard fouls inside the SDSU box and redshirt sophomore Pedro Adan (San Diego/Preuss HS) was able to only play 17 minutes. Freshman Morgan Sacco (Greeley, Colo.) battled a fever to play 49 minutes, giving the Aztecs barely 15 healthy players.
Despite the injuries and illnesses, SDSU jumped out to the early lead when freshman Jose Altamirano (San Diego/Southwest HS) finished a nifty play set up by senior Daniel Ortega (San Diego/Eastlake HS). On the play, Altamirano took a pass from Ortega, juked an OSU defender and touched it into the left side of the net for his first career goal.
Oregon State answered early in the second half on the first of Danny Mwanga's two goals. At the 56:02 mark, Mwanga maneuvered through the crowd to score into the lower-left corner off an assist from John Swenson.
Freshman Devon Sandoval (Albuquerque, N.M.) had a chance to give San Diego State the lead in the 82nd minute but his attempt went just wide of the frame, forcing the Aztecs into their second straight overtime match and fourth of the season.
Junior Khadim Diouf (Dakar, Senegal) had one of his team-high two shots 1:28 into overtime, but it went wide. On the counterattack, Mwanga took Brian Ramsey's pass and drilled it into the lower-right corner for the game-winner at the 91:43 mark.
SDSU redshirt junior goalkeeper Brad Byrns (Alamo, Calif.) played all 91:43 and made six saves. His streak of not surrendering a goal ended at 300 minutes, 2 seconds.
San Diego State will return to Montezuma Mesa for a match against UCLA at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Bruins are ranked as high as No. 2 in the country by Soccer America and are coming off a 1-1, double-overtime tie at Washington. The Aztecs played to a 0-0, double-overtime draw with the Huskies on Friday.