Broncos Drop To Second Place in WCC
By Henry Gula
The Santa Clara men's soccer team played two important conference games this past weekend, falling to the University of Portland in an overtime heartbreaker on Friday night. That didn't stop them from coming back with a definitive win over Gonzaga University on Sunday, keeping themselves in contention for a West Coast Conference Championship heading into the season's final games.
"Good teams will rebound and that's what we did," said Head Coach Cameron Rast of the Broncos' weekend.
The 9-7 Broncos have four conference games remaining. The team has been on a hot streak, winning eight of their past 10 games, and setting themselves up for an NCAA tournament run.
The team's 2-1 loss to Portland with 25 seconds remaining in the second sudden death overtime was deflating, according to Rast.
"There are no easy games in college soccer," he said. "Portland came out and played well, I think we played better, but we weren't sharp in the right area and because of that, you leave the game up for chance."
Forward Ryan Masch scored Santa Clara's lone goal on Friday. "I had full confidence in our team that we were going to come back from that deficit," said Masch. "It's not going to come easy."
Masch attributes some of his success this season to the Broncos' use of a new formation. Masch is currently second on the team in goals and third in shots.
Forward Erik Hurtado has been a force to be reckoned with this season. He is either leading or tied for the lead in every offensive statistical category for the WCC.
Hurtado scored all three Bronco goals against Gonzaga on Sunday for the first hat trick of his collegiate career, bringing his season total to 14.
"If I get my chances, I'm going to score goals," said Hurtado. "I got my team to put me in the right spot to get me the ball in the right situation at the right time. If they get me the ball in the right place I'm going to score."
He emphasized commitment as the key to both the team's success and his personal outstanding season.
"Everybody is invested in the team. Even when we have a day off, everybody is out here in uniform ready to work," said Hurtado. "Without a whole team you can't win anything, and that's what this team has."
Going forward, the players all expressed winning as the team's first goal.
"It's definitely possible. One game at a time, get a result, come out on top of each game," said senior goalkeeper Larry Jackson. "I think the team and I both responded well to (adversity). We've done well scoring goals, now we just need to stay on top."
Jackson has been a key to the Broncos' success, starting all but one game in goal and contributing four shutout performances on the season.
"I know that I have high aspirations for myself, and it's always hard to achieve those," he said. "I just hope (the University of) San Diego has some difficulties going forward."
The Broncos are one game behind the San Diego, a team they will play again.
"I don't think there's a game that we're concerned about, the big thing in the end is to be able to take care of each game knowing that every opponent could be the undoing of what we want to accomplish," said Rast of the remaining schedule. "A couple years ago we were happy to be back in the tournament, but now we're pointing towards bigger things. You want to make noise."
Contact Henry Gula at hgula@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.