SACRAMENTO -- The Sacramento State men's soccer team sent the hometown faithful home happy in its 2022 home opener on Sunday, scoring a goal in each half and holding off a late push from visiting San Jose State for a 2-1 victory at Hornet Soccer Field.
The win evened the Hornets' record at 1-1 overall on the year, winning each of the last three meetings with their California State University system rivals, while the Spartans fell to 1-1 overall with the loss.
Wasting little time in getting on the board first, Sacramento State broke the seal just seven minutes into the contest when a loose ball in traffic neat the top of the six found its way past a screened SJSU goalkeeper for the 1-0 lead. The goal at the 6:46 mark was the quickest to start a match by the Hornets since Matt Carnefix scored just 4:23 into a 2-1 win over San Diego on Sept. 15, 2019.
The score remained that way through the rest of the first half despite a 7-4 shot advantage for the Spartans. Sacramento State, however, picked up the pace to start the second, taking the first four shot attempts while holding SJSU to without a shot for the first 10 minutes.
Newcomer Dominic Vegaalban finally doubled the lead in the 76th minute, finding the back of the net for his first goal as the Hornet for the 2-0 advantage. A blocked shot sprung Sacramento State on the counter as Gaelen Filtzanidis punched a ball forward for Vegaalban, who caught the San Jose State goalkeeper way off his line outside the 18.
The ball got behind the defense where Vegaalban outmuscled a defender to the loose ball, deked the recovering goalkeeper scrambling to get into position, and then poked the ball into an empty net for the second goal of the match.
San Jose State, which held an 18-11 shot advantage for the match, but put only four of those 18 on frame, then pulled one of those goals back late in the 87th minute as Diego Delgadillo found his way down the left side of the field, cut into the box and snuck a shot inside the left post at a sharp angle to make it a one-goal contest.
Chasing the equalizer, the Spartans took the final two shots of the match, but came up empty, turned away by goalkeeper Mac Learned on the field and missing wide on the second as the horn sounded. Learned finished with three saves on the day in picking up his first win of the season, while Vegaalban finished with a match high seven shots — putting three on goal.
Sacramento State returns to the road to start next week, traveling to Moraga, Calif., to take on Saint Mary's on Thursday (Sept. 1) at 4 p.m., before coming home to welcome Pacific on Sunday (Sept. 4) at 1 p.m.
