Sept. 20, 2015
SAN DIEGO -
San Diego State men's soccer dropped its first match of the season, a 3-2 heartbreaking loss to UNLV at SDSU Sports Deck on Sunday night.
The loss snaps the Aztecs' six-match unbeaten streak to open the 2015 campaign, and a 10-match unbeaten streak in non-conference play at SDSU Sports Deck dating back to 2014. San Diego State is now 4-1-2 on the season.
"It was an unfortunate loss," San Diego State head coach Lev Kirshner said. "We played well, but we pride ourselves on not giving up dead balls in our third and we gave up too many tonight."
San Diego State got off to a quick start, sporting an organized attack to open the contest. In the eighth minute, Travis Nicklaw was taken down just outside the box and on the ensuing free kick, Casey Phillips sent the ball sailing into the net for his first of the season.
The Aztecs continued to generate quality scoring chances, out-shooting the Rebels, 8-3, in the half.
But UNLV returned from the halftime intermission firing on all cylinders. "UNLV took over the game in the beginning of the second half," Kirshner said. "We were able to get the game back under control, however. Sometimes, that's the flow of soccer."
At the 68-minute mark, the Rebels' Rodrigo Fuentes was awarded a free kick at the top of the box and knocked the ball into the right side of the net to tie the score at 1-1.
Just 15 seconds later, the Aztecs answered convincingly. On a feed from Matt Callahan, Jeroen Meefout took a hard and quick shot from the top right corner of the box to snatch back San Diego State's lead at 2-1.
However, the Rebels knotted the score at 76:53. After a corner kick, Jordan Chavez's shot flew into the cross bar and bounced into the net for the 2-2 goal.
UNLV sealed its 3-2 victory with just 1:20 remaining in the contest, thanks to a penalty kick by Danny Musovski.
The Aztecs out-shot the Rebels, 15-10, in the contest, led by Meefout's five shots. Adam Allmaras made four saves, a season high, as his record fell to 3-1-2. Richard Garness's record for UNLV moved to 4-2-0 on the season. San Diego State took four corner kicks, one more than the Rebels' three corners.
San Diego State's final match before the start of Pac-12 play is on Sun., Sept. 27 at the University of the Pacific. The match is slated to start at 1 p.m.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Jeroen Meefout is the Aztecs' Man of the Match. The sophomore scored a second half goal to give San Diego State a 2-1 lead in the 69th minute and led all players with five shots. The native of Houten, Netherlands spent 61 minutes on the pitch, putting two shots on goal.