SACRAMENTO -- And we play on! The Sacramento State men's soccer team moves into the postseason for the first time since 2017 as the No. 6 seed in the Big West Conference Tournament, making a return trip to Orange County to take on No. 3 UC Irvine in the quarterfinals on Wednesday (Nov. 2) at 6 p.m. The winner advances to face No. 2 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday (Nov. 5), with the championship match to be held at the home of the higher seeded school on Nov. 12.
MATCH #19
WHAT: No. 6 Sacramento State (9-7-2, 4-5 Big West) at No. 3 UC Irvine (5-11-2, 5-3-1 Big West)
WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022
TIME: 6 p.m.
WHERE: Irvine, Calif.
STADIUM: Anteater Stadium
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: UCIrvineSports.com
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION: Big West Conference
BIG WEST CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Wednesday, Nov. 2
No. 6 Sacramento State at No. 3 UC Irvine, 6 p.m. - ESPN+
No. 5 UC Davis at No. 4 CSUN, 7 p.m. - ESPN+
Saturday, Nov. 5
CSUN/UC Davis at No. 1 UC Riverside, 7 p.m. - ESPN+
Sacramento State/UC Irvine at No. 2 UC Santa Barbara, 7 p.m. - ESPN+
Saturday, Nov. 12
Championship Match, TBA at home of the higher seed - ESPN+
IN THE POLLS: Sacramento State enters the postseason standing No. 8 in the United Soccer Coaches Far West Region poll, while UC Santa Barbara and CSUN rank No. 7 and No. 9, respectively... The Hornets have been ranked in the region for seven of the 10 weeks during the regular season.
THAT'S RANK: Sacramento State's appearance in the Sept. 20 United Soccer Coaches national poll marked only the seventh time that the Hornets have been among that group according to the organization's archive that dates back to 1996, and the first since they received six votes on Aug. 30, 2011. Sacramento State has twice finished the year receiving votes nationally in 2009 and 2010, including a program-high seven votes at the end of the 2010 campaign.
BE A FOLLOWER...: Fans can keep up with the latest in Sacramento State athletics by following us on Facebook (/SacramentoStateAthletics), Twitter (@HornetSports), and Instagram (@sacstateathletics). You can also follow the Hornets' men's soccer program on all three platforms: Instagram (@sacstatemsoccer), Twitter (@sacstmsoccer), and Facebook (/sacstatemsoccer).
WE'LL DO IT LIVE!: Every match during the Big West Tournament will be streamed live on the ESPN+ subscription platform. Links to watch and for live stats for all matches will be posted, as soon as they are available, on the men's soccer schedule page at HornetSports.com.
SEVEN HORNETS PICK UP ALL-BIG WEST HONORS: Junior Austin Wehner was named to the first team, Genaro Alfaro picked up second team honors, and three Hornets were named to the both the honorable mention and all-freshman squads, as the Big West Conference released its postseason honor roll on Tuesday. In addition to Wehner and Alfaro's awards, Francisco Magana, Alejandro Padilla, and Edgar Guerra were honorable mention selections, while Guerra, Danny Govea, and Justin Faison were named to the all-freshman squad.
LONG TIME COMING: Wehner's first-team nod makes him the first Hornet to earn the honor since Paul Geyer and Cylus Sandoval were both named to the All-Big West first team in 2017, and only the fifth overall in the history of the program along with Chimdum Mez (2014) and Matt Linenberger (2012). Meanwhile, Alfaro's second-team honor is the program's first since Benji Kikanovic in 2019.
WELCOME TO THE CLUB: All seven of the Hornets' All-Big West honorees picked up the first all-conference awards of their respective careers in the green and gold.
THAT'S FRESH: With Guerra, Govea, and Faison's inclusion on the all-freshman team, the Hornets had three players named to that squad for the first time in program history and the fourth time since 2013 that Sacramento State has had multiple all-freshman team selections: Mac Harrington and Christian Webb in 2016, Justin Bedig and Tyler Moss in 2017, and Alfaro and Jaime Robles in 2019. The Hornets' three all-freshman team selections are the most in the league for 2022, edging out both UC Riverside and UC Irvine, which had two apiece.
SCOUTING UC IRVINE: The Anteaters are the No. 3 seed in this year's tournament, finishing the regular season with a 5-11-2 overall record and a 5-3-1 mark in Big West play... UC Irvine is unbeaten (3-0-1) in its last four heading into the postseason, shutting out UC San Diego on the road, 1-0, in its season finale that followed wins over CSU Bakersfield (2-1) and CSUN (2-1) as well as a 2-2 draw with UC Santa Barbara... Three of the Anteaters' five wins have come at home this year, finishing 3-4-2 at Anteater Stadium... Robert Mejia, a graduate transfer from UC Davis, leads the team in scoring with three goals and a pair of assists for eight points, while Ashish Chattha and Agaton Pourshahidi have also found the back of the net three times... Goalkeeper Luke Pruter has started 17 of the team's 18 matches in net, posting a 1.65 goals against average and 59 saves (.678 save percentage) to go with a pair of shutouts on the year.
SERIES NOTES: UC Irvine leads the all-time series with Sacramento State, 10-8-4, after posting a 1-0 victory in Orange County back on Oct. 8... The Anteaters lead the series, 8-4, in matches played in Southern California... UCI is 2-1-2 against the Hornets in the last five meetings between the two programs... Four of the last seven meetings have been one-goal contests with a pair of high scoring draws mixed in (3-3 in 2017 and 2-2 in 2019)... Sacramento State has lost its last two trips to Irvine, last posting a win in Orange County by a 2-1 score in 2016.
HORNET TOURNEY NOTES: In clinching its first Big West Tournament berth since 2017, Sacramento State is making only its fourth conference tournament appearance since joining the league in 2012... The Hornets and UC Irvine have met in the Big West Tournament once before, with the Anteaters posting a 2-0 win in 2014 in Orange County... Sacramento State reached the semifinals of the 2016 tournament, downing UC Riverside, 2-1, at home before a scoreless draw at CSUN in the semifinals, with the Matadors advancing, 6-5, on penalties... The Hornets and CSUN met in 2017 in Southern California, with the Matadors posting a 3-2 overtime win.
PREVIOUSLY, AGAINST THE ANTEATERS: After playing to a scoreless draw for the first 45 minutes, UC Irvine's Ashish Chattha scored in the 54th minute for the match's only goal, lifting the Anteaters to a 1-0 win over the Hornets. Sacramento State suffered only its second shutout of the season to that point, while UC Irvine picked up only its second win of the year with the victory. The Anteaters held a 16-7 advantage in shots, but put only four on frame, while Genaro Alfaro finished with three of the Hornets' attempts.
POSTSEASON... TABLE FOR TWO: The Sacramento State men's soccer team will be joined in the postseason by the Hornets' women's team, which clinched the No. 4 seed in the Big Sky Conference Championships. It is the third time that both the Sacramento State men's and women's soccer teams have qualified for their respective conference tournaments in the same season, joining the 2016 and 2017 squads.
GUTIERREZ STRIKES AGAIN: It took sophomore Bryan Gutierrez 19 matches to find the back of the net for the first time in his career, then only seven days to do so for a second time, scoring four minutes into the second half against rival UC Davis to cut into an Aggies' lead. After finishing with three shots in 11 matches as a reserve in 2021, Gutierrez has been efficient, putting three of his five attempts this year on frame and scoring twice -- including the game-winner at Cal State Fullerton on Oct. 22.
HE'S A HELPER: Junior Christo Cervantes came through with a nifty pass leading to the Gutierrez goal against UC Davis, finding his teammate through traffic en route to the score. The assist was the second of the year for Cervantes, who tallied his first point since an assist against Gonzaga back on Sept. 11.
HELP ME, HELP YOU... AND YOU... AND YOU: Cervantes' assist made him the eighth different Hornet to post multiple assists this season, tying Sacramento State with UC Santa Barbara for the second-most in the league in that category, trailing only Cal State Fullerton and its nine players with two-or-more assists.
GIMMIE FIVE!: Francisco Magana's five goals this year have nearly doubled his career total entering the 2022 campaign and are the most by a Hornet since in a single season since Benji Kikanovic and Dominic Scotti had five in 2018. A sixth goal by the Washington native before the season's end would be the most by a Sacramento State player since Christian Webb finished with six in 2017.
SPREAD THE WEALTH: Sacramento State has had 11 different players score goals this season -- tied for the second-highest total among Big West schools with Cal Poly and trailing only Cal State Fullerton (15) entering the week -- while nine different Hornets have found the back of the net multiple times to lead the league in that category.
WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER: Seven different Hornets have accounted for the game-winning scores in the team's nine victories this season: Dominic Vegaalban (San Jose State), Austin Wehner (Saint Mary's and UC Riverside), Christo Cervantes (LMU), Francisco Magana (Gonzaga and Cal Poly), Jaime Robles (Utah Tech), Cody Sundquist (CSU Bakersfield), and Bryan Gutierrez (Cal State Fullerton), while Vegaalban (twice), Wehner, Genaro Alfaro (twice), Alejandro Padilla, and Edgar Guerra have tallied game-winning assists. Dating back to last year, Sacramento State's last 11 game-winners have been scored by nine different players when you add Titus Washington's winner versus UC San Diego and Alejandro Alcantra's score against Cal State Fullerton in 2021.
MINUTE MAN: It's been difficult to get Genaro Alfaro off the field this season as the junior has played all 90 minutes in a match 15 times in the team's 18 contests this season -- including 13 of the last 14 -- and has played 80-or-more minutes in two other contests. His 1,589 minutes played are the most of any Hornet (field players or goalkeepers) this season -- joining Alejandro Padilla (1,488), Cody Sundquist (1,409), Ali Sasankhah (1,388), Austin Wehner (1,269), Jaime Robles (1,162), and Francisco Magana (1,040) above the 1,000-minute mark -- and are the fourth most in the Big West this season behind a trio of UC San Diego players.
MAKING THEIR POINTS: Magana's 12 points (five goals, two assists) are the most in a season by a Hornet since Oscar Govea finished with 12 (four goals, four assists) in 2019. Magana, Vegaalban (11 points), and Austin Wehner (11 points) have all reached double-digit points this season, giving Sacramento State three-or-more players with at least 10 points for the first time since 2017 when Justin Bedig (13 points), Christian Webb (13 points), and Matt Carnefix (10 points) accomplished the feat. Genaro Alfaro stands just outside that group with nine points this year and, with one more, would give the Hornets a quartet of double-digit point scorers for the first time since 2012: Isaac Ikyurav (14), Gabe Silveira (13), Chris Sandoval (10), and Max Alvarez (10).
EIGHT IS ENOUGH: Since the start of Big West Conference play, junior Austin Wehner has done his fair share in helping power the Hornets' offense, collecting eight points (three goals and two assists) in four of the team's nine league matches. In matches again league opponents only, his three goals finished ranked tied for second in the conference, tied for sixth in assists, and tied for third in points.
MY HERO, ZERO: Sacramento State's 4-0 shutout of Cal Poly was the program's largest shutout victory since an 11-0 win over William Jessup in 2011, and the largest shutout win over a Division I opponent since an 8-0 clean sheet against Loyola Marymount in 1993.
NOT A MATTER OF IF, BUT WINS: Sacramento State's wins at Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton gave the Hornets nine overall for the season and four in Big West Conference play at the end of the regular season. The nine wins are the most since the 2016 team finished 9-8-3 overall, while the four conference triumphs are the most since the 2017 squad ended the year with a 4-4-2 mark. One more win this season would give the Hornets double-digit victories for the first time since winning 11 matches in 2010.
SPEAKING OF WINS: Guerra's two victories this past week improved the Santa Rosa, Calif., native to 6-1-1 in net this year -- the most wins by a Hornet goalkeeper since James Del Curto won eight matches in 2017.
FIRST!: The Hornets have gotten off to a strong start by scoring first in 10 of their 18 matches thus far this season -- and 12 of their last 20 dating back to last year -- posting an 8-1-1 record in those contests in 2022 after suffering their first such loss at UC San Diego on Oct. 5. The 10 "first goals" this season are tied for second in the Big West with UC Santa Barbara, trailing only UC Riverside's 14.
SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS... EVERYBODY!: Francisco Magana's hat trick against Gonzaga on Sept. 11 -- the first by a Big West player since UC Davis' Maximilian Arfsten did so against San Francisco on Sept. 22 last year -- came on seven total shots in the match with six of those on frame as the junior continuously threatened to put more in the back of the net. The seven attempts matched Dominic Vegaalban's seven shots against San Jose State on Aug. 28 for the most by a Hornet this year and the most for a Sacramento State player in nine years dating back to Edwin Luna's eight in a 1-1 draw with San Francisco on Sept. 12, 2013. The Hornets tied their season high with 20 shots as a team at CSU Bakersfield on Sept. 28 -- matching the 20 against Gonzaga and the most since it took 20 against CSUN on Oct. 6 of last season -- while Magana's six shots on goal against Gonzaga were the most since Isaac Flores finished with seven (of his 12 overall) against William Jessup on Sept. 9, 2011.
