SACRAMENTO — Goalkeeper Mac Learned finished with five saves en route to his second shutout of the season and the Sacramento State defense limited visiting UC San Diego to just six shots on frame as the Hornets and Tritons battled to a scoreless draw on Saturday evening at Hornet Soccer Field.
The draw was the second straight for Sacramento State to open Big West Conference play, moving the Hornets to 3-6-2 overall and 0-0-2 in league play. It was the first scoreless draw for the Hornets since they battled Pacific to a double-overtime tie on Sept. 11, 2018, in Stockton, Calif.
Meanwhile, UC San Diego moved to 2-6-3 overall and 1-0-1 in Big West play after claiming three points with a win over UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday night.
Learned's five saves followed up his six-save performance earlier in the week in a 1-1 draw with CSU Bakersfield, but two of his stops on Saturday were, perhaps, his biggest, pushing a pair over the crossbar on a header by James Redington in the 18th minute and a free kick by Asa Gibson in the 57th minute that threatened to break the scoreless deadlock.
Another key moment had the back line coming up big as Max Carvalho won a foot race to the ball on the right side, catching Learned well off his line near the edge of the six-yard box. Learned slid twice to force Carvalho make a move and his ensuing shot with three defenders in front of him guarding the net was blocked out for a corner by freshman
Zac Giles.
At the other end, Triton keeper Mitchell Wilson was equally up to the task, finishing with nine saves for the match to keep the Hornets off the board.
Sacramento State's offense finished with a 15-11 advantage in the shot column, including putting nine of those attempts on frame. The Hornets also successfully defended eight corners by UCSD — five of those coming in the second half as both teams were pushing for the go-ahead score.
Hasan Alsakati finished with a team-high five shot attempts, putting four of those on frame, while
Axel Ramirez (three) and
Francisco Magana (two) also finished with multiple attempts for the match.
After playing their last three matches at home, the Hornets hit the road for the first time in conference play next week, taking on UC Riverside on Wednesday (Oct. 4) and CSUN on Saturday (Oct. 7). Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ and kick-off at 7 p.m.
