Men's soccer knocks off last year's champions

By Joe Doss-Antoun

The men's soccer team has officially started conference play and competition has already proven to be stronger than past years.

Currently, the West Coast Conference has four teams ranked nationally in the top 50 -- San Diego, San Francisco, Loyola Marymount and the Broncos.

The Broncos opened up WCC play on Sept. 24 with a 2-1 victory over San Francisco.

"That was a good game for us," said head coach Cameron Rast. "To go up there and win is not an easy thing to do because it's just a tough place to play. We've also had some great battles with them over the past few years. It felt good to get a win against a team of that caliber."

The win was especially important because the Dons are the defending two-time WCC champions.

Knocking off last year's champions is a great way to gain momentum in a competitive league. However, defeating the Dons was only a piece of a much larger puzzle in trying to capture the Broncos' first WCC title since 2003.

"Now we're getting into conference play so every game is important," said Rast. "But when it's a double round, you get to see everybody twice and you know everyone is going to be tough."

A "double round" referred to the fact that the Broncos will face each WCC school twice during conference play. The women's soccer team only has one game against each conference opponent.

Rast's presumptions about the difficult conference were on the mark. This past weekend, the Broncos hosted Loyola Marymount at Buck Shaw Stadium. Going into the game, the Lions had been victorious in three of the last four matches against the Broncos.

Matt Hatzke, a third year varsity player, brought his usually aggressive style of play onto the field. However, only five minutes into the game, Hatzke received a red card for a tough tackle when he challenged Loyola's Nick Blanco for a 50-50 ball. While the call may have been questionable, the ensuing consequences could have changed the outcome of the game.

"Matt's not a dirty player -- he's just aggressive," Rast said of the red card. "We want our team to be aggressive on the field but we definitely do not encourage recklessness. We don't play that way, and I'm a little concerned that a referee would make that rash of a decision that affects the game that way."

Unfortunately for the Broncos, the Lions continued their recent dominance over the Santa Clara with a 2-1 victory.

"You know it's a tough game for us because they are a good opponent and they bring challenges that we don't particularly handle as well as we should," said Rast.

In spite of the loss, Rast saw some positive characteristics from his team.

"We fell behind two goals and battled back to score one ourselves, but we just weren't able to get that second goal. I think that's a good sign for us to see that we're really pushing ourselves to battle back from an adverse situation, which showed good character on our part," he said.

Although the Broncos fell short against Loyola Marymount, they were able to rebound two days later against one of the better teams in the WCC, San Diego.

San Diego, ranked no. 10 in the nation, visited Buck Shaw last Sunday for a match that would have heavy implications on the final WCC standings.

The Broncos started the game off with a bang when senior Keith DeVey registered his fourth goal of the year just five minutes into the half. The Broncos got some insurance when sophomore forward Brian Martin forced a turnover and then snuck a ball under the Torero's goalkeeper, Lance Friesz, to give the Broncos a 2-0 lead.

While San Diego managed to score a goal early in the second half when attacker Kevin Meissner beat Broncos goalkeeper Joey Buttitta on a shot that bent in the far post, the Broncos managed to hold off any further attacks by the Toreros.

Solid possession play and six saves by Buttitta helped lead the Broncos to a 2-1 victory, their second WCC win in three matches.

"We showed good character in the sense that we went up a couple of goals, but continued to play solid," Rast said. "We gave a goal away, but we didn't break, and it's very easy to break and have a let down in a game like that."

The Broncos WCC schedule only gets tougher this weekend when they travel up to the pacific northwest.

On Friday night, the Broncos will face off against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in Spokane, Wash. Two days later, on Oct. 8, the team will travel to Portland, Ore., to take on the Portland Pilots.

"We have a great road trip up to Portland and Gonzaga which has never been easy for us. It's never been easy for anyone. Both teams are very good at home," said Rast.

While he well aware that this weekend will not be an easy task, Rast said he believes that this is a great opportunity for his players to prove what they are capable of doing.

"At the same time, I'm looking forward to the games because all of the pressure is on them and we can go in with confidence, we can go in with aggressiveness, we can go in with just the ability to feel like we take a game from them," said Rast. "I honestly believe we are as good as, if not better than both teams."

"If we do the things we're training on this week, which I'm going to keep a secret, I think we can walk away with the results we want," Rast said.

Contact Joe Doss-Antoun at (408) 551-1918 or jdossantoun@scu.edu.