Men's Soccer Fights Back for 2-1 Win at Cal State East Bay

HAYWARD, Calif. – After surrendering a goal in the fourth minute of the match, the No. 20 St. Mary's University Men's Soccer team responded with two of its own for the 2-1 victory on Friday afternoon.
 
The Rattlers handed Cal State East Bay its first loss of the season, as both teams are now 3-1-1 on the year.
 
"This was a good win for us," said Head Coach Johnny Clifford. "We made some mistakes early, which cost us a goal, but I'm really proud of how the boys fought back and really put our dominance on the game after that. We worked hard today, but we will now take some time recovering for (Academy of) Art on Sunday, which will be another good challenge."
 
Senior Cian Foley (Wexford, Ireland) remained on fire, finding senior Gero Wolters (Niederkruchten, Germany) in the box on a free kick, which Wolters headed in the 20th minute to knot the score at 1-1.
 
In the 37th minute, Foley found the back of the net on a penalty kick for his third game-winning goal of the year. He is already tied for fourth on the school's single-season list for game-winners, needing three more to tie the all-time mark of six by Pato Botello Faz (2018).
 
The Pioneers out-shot the Rattlers 17-7 in the game, but CSEB managed to only have two of the shots on target as StMU senior Andre Schlaefli (Katy, Texas) made one save. 
 
Senior Juan Jose Valdez Lopez (Asuncion, Central, Paraguay) notched two shots on goal and four total shots on the day and sophomore Calum Murdoch (Christchurch, New Zealand) tallied the other as five of the team's seven shots were on target.
 
St. Mary's remains in California, playing at the Academy of Art on Sunday at 1 p.m. (Pacific)/3 p.m. (Central).