Men's soccer gets big win against San Diego

By Philip Keck

With the postseason on the line, Head Coach Mitch Murray employed an unusual tactic to secure the win last Friday from the defending WCC Champions, the University of San Diego.

The game was played with neither team gaining a clear advantage until Santa Clara finally struck goal on a header from freshman Eric Irvine with two seconds left in the first period.

"The game was a little slow at first and USD was not ready for our intensity," sophomore Kellen Gilmore said, who assisted on the goal. "We took it to them the first half and I knew the game was ours from the start."

The Toreros wiped away the 1-0 lead in the second half after forcing the ball past Bronco goalkeeper Rusty Johnson with 30 minutes to go. In total, both teams combined for 16 shots in the second period before Murray put freshman goalie Steve Cronin into the game as a forward.

With the clock approaching zero, Cronin scored the go-ahead goal with less than a minute left in regulation.

"I was stoked about the result," Cronin said. "It was awesome to be a factor in such a big win for Santa Clara. I don't think the smile came off my face until four hours after."

"I was overwhelmed with the victory," Irvine said. "I think that everyone expected San Diego to win. We knew deep down that we were able to, it was just a question of would we come to play, and we did."

The win against USD set them on the right course to win the WCC, and was a large confidence booster displaying to the team what they are capable of.

"The win was huge," Murray said. "We put a lot of importance on this game [because] we do have to win the conference in order to get into the tournament at this point."

"The goal heading into halftime was a big, big goal. It set off a huge reaction that kept us going in the second half. They came back and tied it later in the game, but the key was our guys didn't get rattled. We kept playing hard, and to score the game-winner with just 28 seconds remaining was just a big thrill for us."

The Broncos play their next conference game on Friday against the University of San Francisco in San Francisco. Santa Clara will then return for the homecoming match against visiting Stanford at Buck Shaw Stadium on Sunday at 6 p.m.