BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Junior Cody Sundquist's first goal as a Hornet in the 11th minute stood up as the game-winner, lifting the Sacramento State men's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over host CSU Bakersfield on Saturday morning.
With the win, the Hornets picked up three points in their Big West Conference opener, improving to 6-2-2 overall on the season and 1-0 in league play. The sixth triumph of the year for Sacramento State surpassed last season's win total and gives the Hornets their most victories since the 2019 squad finished with seven wins.
The Roadrunners, who had won the last two in the series by a combined 7-2 score, fell to 2-6-1 overall on the year and 0-1 in conference play.
Sophomore goalkeeper Mac Learned made a career-high five saves and the defense claimed its second shutout of the year — both by 1-0 scores — joining the one-goal clean sheet victory at Utah Tech back on Sept. 16. The five saves for Learned are the second-most in the Lincoln, Calif., native's career, standing two shy of the seven stops he had at Santa Clara on Aug. 29 of last season.
Sacramento State wasted little time in getting on the board in the first half as sophomore Alejandro Padilla punted a ball down the right side for junior Francisco Magana, who one-touched a pass to Sundquist making his run toward the middle of the box.
Sundquist took a touch to the outside and ran to the endline where he powered a right-footed shot from a sharp angle through the Bakersfield goalkeeper and across the line for the 1-0 lead.
In addition to it being Sundquist's first goal of the year, Padilla collected his second assist of the season, tying him with
Michael Gonzalez for the team lead, while Magana tallied his first helper of 2022 to go with his team-high four goals. Nine different players have now found the back of the net for the Hornets this year, while Sundquist became the eighth different Sacramento State player to score a game-winning goal in the team's last eight wins dating back to last season.
That was enough for the Hornets, who limited the 'Runners to just five shots on goal for the match and 10 overall, while unleashing 20 of their own — tying their season high set against Gonzaga on Sept. 11 at home and the most in a road match since taking 20 attempts at CSUN on Oct. 6 of last season.
Sundquist had two chances to put Sacramento State up earlier than his scoring strike as he broke free from a defender in the ninth minute only to have the CSUB goalkeeper make a point-blank save at the top of the six. The rebound wasn't corralled, however, and Sundquist's follow sailed high and out of play.
Padilla then had two chances off a corner turned away at the doorstep by the 'Runner keeper inside of 10 minutes, while CSU Bakersfield's best first-half opportunity off the head of Conor Walsh went just wide as a cross inside the six was headed into the ground, but bounced just wide of the left post.
Sacramento State kept the pressure on to start the second half looking to extend its advantage, attempting five of the first six shots in the period, but could not dent the back of the net. Learned then made a pair of stops a minute apart in the 73rd and 74th minutes, denying Carlos Armendariz and Rene Cortez, while the Hornet defense did not allow a shot over the final 16-plus minutes to preserve the shutout.
Junior
Michael Gonzalez finished with a team-high four shot attempts with
Austin Wehner,
Axel Ramirez, and Padilla, finishing with three apiece.
Now 5-1 in one-goal decisions this season, Sacramento State closes out the opening weekend of Big West Conference play on Saturday (Oct. 1) at 7 p.m., taking on UC San Diego in La Jolla, Calif.
