SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Junior Hiroshi Yang's first career brace staked the Hornets to an early lead and senior Zac Giles remained one of the hottest players in The Big West with his fourth goal of the year, helping the Sacramento State men's soccer team to a 3-1 win over visiting UC Riverside on Wednesday afternoon at Hornet Soccer Field.
Sacramento State won its second consecutive match to improve to 3-5 overall on the year, collecting its first win over a Pac-12 opponent since a 1-0 victory at Stanford on Sept. 12, 2010. The Hornets posted back-to-back victories — and scored three-or-more goals in back-to-back matches — for the first time since a 5-0 triumph over CSUN and a 3-1 win over UC Santa Barbara in 2024.
With the loss, the Highlanders fell to 3-3-2 on the year, suffering back-to-back defeats in the series with Sacramento State for the first time since 2016-17 seasons.
The Hornets' three goals were the most by the program in the all-time series with UC Riverside and came just a week after they put up four scores in a 4-2 win over Pacific. Meanwhile, at the other end of the field, Sacramento State's defense limited the Highlanders to just two shots on goal — the fewest allowed by the Hornets this season and the fewest since the Matadors had only one on Oct. 16, 2024.
It didn't take long for Sacramento State to gain the advantage as the Highlanders' starting goalkeeper was issued a red card after coming out of the box to cut down Jesus Magana just 2:17 into the contest, forcing UC Riverside to play a man down the rest of the way.
In the 28th minute, it was Yang that put his team on the board first, launching a wonder strike from about 35 yards out that looped over the new keeper's head before bottoming out, tucking under the crossbar, and settling in the right-side netting for the 1-0 lead.
Eleven minutes later, it was Yang once again as the Hornets drew a foul about 25 yards out, setting up a free kick for the home side from nearly straight on. Giles and Yang both stood over the ball, but it was Yang that took the attempt, sneaking a left-footed low liner inside the left post for a 2-0 advantage.
The brace was the first of Yang's career and the second by a Hornet in as many matches after Giles did so against Pacific a week earlier. The scores were the second and third of the season for Yang, who moved into a tie for second on the team in goals scored and his first since scoring the first goal of the season for Sacramento State in the opener against UC Davis. It also came a week after he notched a pair of assists in the win over the Tigers on his birthday.
UC Riverside was able to claw one of the goals back after the break off a free kick of its own as Santiago Barros Schelotto entered the match after the foul and promptly put the free kick home to make it a one-goal contest, but that's as close as the Highlanders got.
Reigning Big West Offensive Player of the week Giles remained hot, netting the dagger in the 77th minute for his fourth goal of the year. Giles, who followed up a pair of nine-shot performances in his last two matches with seven more attempts on Wednesday, converted a pass from teammate Eli Reyneveld and scored from close range for the day's final tally.
Giles now has points in five of the team's eight matches this season and has attempted 25 of his league-high 40 shots in his last three contests. Angad Singh, who assisted on Yang's first goal of the day, and Reyneveld each logged their first points of the year.
Sacramento State outshot UC Riverside by a 16-8 count, putting nine of its attempts on goal and taking eight of the 10 shots in the first half.
The match was the last before the start of Big West play, which begins with a pair of matches next week. The Hornets travel to perennial power UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday (Oct. 30) for a 7 p.m. kick-off, before coming back home to host Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday (Oct. 3) at 4 p.m.
