SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Riding a four-match unbeaten streak, the Sacramento State men's soccer team closes out its non-conference schedule on the road on Friday (Sept. 27), heading to the Pacific Northwest to take on Portland at 5 p.m.
THIS WEEK…
MATCH #9
WHAT: Sacramento State (3-4-1) at Portland (2-4-2)
WHEN: Friday, Sept. 27, 2024
TIME: 5 p.m.
WHERE: Portland, Ore.
STADIUM: Merlo Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: PortlandPilots.com
GAME NOTES
Sacramento State | Portland
WE'LL DO IT LIVE!
• Every home match during the 2024 regular season will be streamed live on the ESPN+ subscription platform, with select road contests available on various streaming platforms
• Links to watch and for live stats for all matches will be posted, when available, on the men's soccer schedule page at HornetSports.com
SCOUTING PORTLAND
• The Pilots enter the week with a 2-4-2 overall record as Friday's meeting with the Hornets is also their non-conference finale
• After sandwiching wins over Washington and Multnomah around a loss to No. 10 UCLA, Portland is winless in its last five (0-3-2), drawing with No. 3 Denver (0-0) and falling to No. 22 UC Santa Barbara (3-0) in last week's action
• The Pilots are 2-2-1 at home this season
• Portland hasn't scored since the 16th minute of a 1-1 draw against Utah Tech (Sept. 8) – a stretch of 344:28
• Senior midfielder Sebastian Nava leads the team with seven points on two goals and three assists
• Sophomore forward Nicholas Dunbar and senior forward Buba Fofanah have also scored twice
• Senior keeper Kash Oladapo has played the majority (450) of minutes in net, posting a 1.80 goals against average and 16 saves (.640 save percentage)
• Sophomore Miguel-Angel Hernandez has played 257 minutes in net, posting a 1.75 goals against average and 11 saves
SERIES NOTABLES
• Portland leads the all-time series with Sacramento State by a 5-1-1 count
• The Pilots are unbeaten in the last three meetings with the Hornets, posting a 2-0-1 record
• Friday marks the fourth meeting in as many seasons between the two programs, the last coming last season which ended in a 3-0 win for Portland at home
• Sacramento State's only win in the series came in 2016 at home, posting a 2-1 victory on Sept. 15
• The Hornets have never won in Portland, posting an 0-4-1 record in five trips to Merlo Field
• Five of the seven all-time meetings have ended in shutouts in favor of the Pilots
• Sacramento State has scored only three goals against Portland in the series as the Pilots lead the all-time scoring, 18-3
• Friday marks the second trip to Portland for a Hornet soccer team this year as the Sacramento State women's team faced the Pilots back on Sept. 5, falling by a 4-0 score
CONFERENCE CALL
• Friday's match on The Bluff is the fifth straight against a West Coast Conference opponent for the Hornets, who have defeated San Francisco, Saint Mary's, and Santa Clara, while drawing with Pacific
• This year marks the sixth consecutive season that Sacramento State will face at least five WCC opponents, with San Francisco, Saint Mary's, and Pacific on the schedule in each of those six seasons
• The Hornets have faced all eight of the league's current men's soccer-playing members (Pepperdine doesn't have men's soccer), posting a 43-72-20 record against the conference
• The two victories over San Francisco (Sept. 12) and Saint Mary's (Sept. 15) snapped a three-match losing skid against WCC opponents
KELLY EARNS FRESHMAN WEEKLY HONORS
• Helping extend the team's unbeaten streak to four, freshman forward Ethan Kelly was named the Big West Freshman of the Week on Sept. 23
• It is the first career weekly honor from the league office for Kelly, who also becomes only the fourth Hornet to win freshman of the week honors
• He joins teammates Donovan Sessoms and Fernando Venegas as weekly award winners for Sacramento State this year
• Kelly accounted for the Hornets' score in a 1-1 draw with Pacific last weekend -- his second goal of the season -- after appearing in 41 minutes in a win over Santa Clara
• The goal against the Tigers came off a pass from teammate Montgomery Carey (his second assist of the year) just 17 seconds after the pair had checked into the match
WE'RE GOING STREAKING!
• A draw with Pacific to close out the weekend helped the Hornets remain unbeaten (3-0-1) over their last four matches
• It is the longest such streak for Sacramento State since it went unbeaten in seven straight (5-0-2) from Aug. 28 to Sept. 18, 2022
BRONCOS BUCKED
• Sacramento State's 2-1 win at Santa Clara on Sept. 22 marked only the third-ever win in the series with the Broncos dating back to the 1986 season and the first-ever Hornet win in Santa Clara in 13 chances
HOLMES, SWEET HOLMES
• Junior Stacy Holmes needed only 14 minutes to put his team out front against Santa Clara, taking passes from Zac Giles and Axel Ramirez and turning them into a 1-0 lead
• It was the Elk Grove, Calif., native's first career goal, which came just four days after posting his first career assist in the 4-2 win at Saint Mary's on Sept. 15
"POINT"-ING THE WAY
• Holmes' first career points last weekend made him the sixth different Hornet to collect their first career goal or assist in 2024: Kelly (first career goal), Carey (first career assist), Fernando Venegas (first career goal and assist), Vincent Padilla (first career assist), and Gio Ceja (first career assist)
• Meanwhile a seventh -- sophomore Donovan Sessoms -- recorded his first career points with the Hornets after his first career goal came during his first year at UNLV in 2023
ALSAKATI ON THE SPOT
• Hasan Alsakati's second goal of the year was the decisive strike in the Hornets' historic win over Santa Clara, converting an opportunity from the penalty spot for the 2-1 victory
• It was Sacramento State's first penalty kick goal since Dominic Vegaalban did so in a 4-0 victory over Cal Poly on Oct. 19, 2022
• The Hornets have been successful in each of their last eight consecutive penalty kick opportunities -- and 16 of their last 17 overall since 2014 -- dating back to a miss in the 86th minute against San Francisco on Sept. 23, 2018
SQUAD GOALS
• Sacramento State has scored at least one goal in each of its last four matches
• It is the longest such streak since the Hornets found the back of the net in six straight matches from Aug. 27 to Sept. 14 of last season
• During its most recent run, Sacramento State has outscored the opposition by an 8-4 count with six different Hornets accounting for the eight scores
• Aside from Alsakati's penalty against Santa Clara, only one of the remaining nine Sacramento State scores have been unassisted (Donovan Sessoms' score at Saint Mary's)
ZAC ATTACK
• Sophomore Zac Giles peppered the Pacific net to the tune of six shot attempts last weekend -- the most for a Hornet in a match since Francisco Magana had seven against Gonzaga on Sept. 11, 2022
• The six shot attempts are tied for the second-most in a match by a Big West player this year, trailing only the seven attempts by Cal Poly's Quinn Mahoney against Oral Roberts on Aug. 28
• Giles, who shares the team lead with two assists on the year, is tied for third on the team with nine shots along with teammate Axel Ramirez, trailing only Sessoms (17) and Alsakati (14)
STOP! HALT! ARRET! ALTO! FERMA!
• You get the picture. One of the nation's top shot stoppers has picked up right where he left off in 2023, as senior goalkeeper Mac Learned's 42 saves, 5.25 saves per match, and .792 save percentage are tops in the Big West as of Sept. 23
• Entering the week, Learned ranks No. 4 in the NCAA in total saves behind leader Stockton Short of Utah Tech (53) and stands No. 8 in the nation in saves per game
• The nine saves in the shutout of San Francisco on Sept. 12 were a season high and the second-highest total of his career, trailing on his 10 stops against the Dons on the road last year
• They are also tied for the most by a Big West keeper this season, matching UC San Diego's Nolan Premack, who had nine stops against Duke on Aug. 25
• Learned's seven saves at San Diego State on Sept. 6 are fourth on that same list
• After last week, Learned's 162 career saves rank ninth on the school's all-time top 10 list, passing Andy Hegelein's total of 160 stops in 1986, and trailing Ryan Curtis' (2018-19, 2021) total of 182 for eighth place
• Learned's total this year are nearly halfway to his 88 saves in 2023, which were good for ninth on the program's single-season list
YOU GET A GOAL, YOU GET A GOAL
• Sacramento State's four-goal outburst at Saint Mary's last week marked the program's highest goal output since the Hornets put up five at Pacific last season
• All four of Sacramento State's goals against the Gaels came in the second half, marking the program's best single-half goal total since putting home four goals in the second half of a 5-1 win over Cal Poly on Oct. 21, 2017
WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER
• Sessoms was in the right place at the right time after both of his goals against San Francisco (Sept. 12) and Saint Mary's (Sept. 15) went for game-winning scores
• The sophomore scored just 15 minutes in against the Dons -- a goal that stood up in a 1-0 victory -- while his score in the 69th minute against the Gaels proved to be the decisive score in a 4-2 victory
• It marks the 17th straight season that the Hornets have had at least one player with multiple game-winners and the most since Alex Bettencourt and Nate Nugen had three such scores during the 2016 campaign
• Sessoms' two game winners enter the week tied for 15th in the NCAA behind Charleston's Leonardo D'Ambrosio, who has four winners
THE ROAD MOST TRAVELED
• The seven home matches in 2024 are the fewest for the Hornets since the 2018 squad played the same number on its home turf
• Three of those home matches will come prior to the start of Big West play — the third time in the last four seasons that Sacramento State will play so few non-conference contests at home
• In fact, the Hornets will play back-to-back home matches only once all year, hosting CSUN and UC Santa Barbara on Oct. 16 and 19
