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Titans Advance to Big West Tournament Final with 3-1 Win Over Cal Poly

Cal State Fullerton

UC Santa Barbara

Final	1	2	T
Cal State Fullerton (13-7-1)	0	1	1
UC Santa Barbara (13-6-2)	0	0	0

Titans Advance to Big West Tournament Final with 3-1 Win Over Cal Poly

Scoring Summary

2nd - 51:48 - Bell, Mitchell (Cal State Fullerton)

Game Leaders

Cal State Fullerton

G: Mitchell Bell - 1

A: Julian Okai - 1

Sh: 5 Players (#10, #13, #16, #20, #24) - 1

Sv: David Elias - 5

UC Santa Barbara

G: N/A

A: N/A

Sh: Nick DePuy - 8

Sv: N/A

Team Stats

Cal State Fullerton

UC Santa Barbara

Shots (on goal)

5 (1)

22 (6)

Saves

Fouls

Corner Kicks

Offsides

full stats

Posted: Nov 12, 2015

Box Score (PDF)

Big West Postgame Quotes (PDF)

VIDEO: 2015 Men's #BWCSoccer Semis: Titans Top Mustangs to Advance

FULLERTON, Calif. – Diego Sanchez scored the game-winner and added another goal for insurance as the Titans took down the North Division number 2 seed, Cal Poly in a 3-1 win in the semifinal match at Titan Stadium on Wednesday night.

Sanchez scored two goals while senior Julian Okai scored the equalizer on a penalty kick to advance to their second straight Big West Tournament final.

Cal State Fullerton (12-7-1, 6-4-1 BWC) head coach George Kuntz improved his Big West Tournament record to 11-1-1 and will be appearing in his third straight championship game as a head coach, appearing in 2013 with UC Irvine.

With UC Santa Barbara beating UC Davis 1-0 on Wednesday night, the Titans will head to Santa Barbara for the championship match set for Saturday night.

"Santa Barbara is a very, very good team. If anybody saw that first game it was pretty close. I thought we played very well against them the first time, they were better, hopefully we're better," said Kuntz on going up to Santa Barbara for the tournament final. "It's going to be a mano y mano game, that's it. Two teams, 11 guys on the field, nobody else matters."

After a dominant first 20 minutes by the Mustangs, Cal Poly's George Grote managed to score the first goal of the game by slipping it by Titan keeper David Rodriguez Elias to put Cal Poly up 1-0.

Minutes later, the Mustangs were called on a handball inside their own box to give the Titans a penalty kick. Taking the kick was Okai, who whistled his second PK of the year past Mustang keeper Wade Hamilton to tie it at one a piece.

After finishing up the first half tied 1-1, the Titans came into the second half looking to breakaway from the Mustangs and they did just that.

Six minutes into the second half, Fullerton drew a corner kick which ended up being headed out by a Cal Poly defender right outside the box to Sanchez, who volleyed it into the top left net to give the Titans the 2-1 lead.

"It was just fast, as soon as I hit the ball I knew I struck it well and when I saw it going into the back of the net I just started celebrating," said Sanchez of his game-winning goal.

The Titans sealed the deal in the 69^th minute when Ronaldo Pineda found Sanchez who was coming in from behind and found his way to the ball to once again find the left side of the net to solidify the Titan lead at 3-1.

Titan keeper Rodriguez Elias posted four saves while the Titan defense allowed only two corner kicks throughout the entire match.

The Titans head up north to take on the North Division number 1 seed, UC Santa Barbara for their second straight Big West Tournament final on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m.

NOTES: The Titans are unbeaten against Cal Poly in the last four meetings… This is the Titans second straight and third overall appearance in the Big West Tournament final… The Titans logged their 8^th win at home, the most since 2000 when they had 10… In their last meeting, Santa Barbara beat the Titans at Harder Stadium in double overtime 2-1… The Gauchos lead the overall series 29-23-3…. The two teams met in the Big West Tournament final in 2010 when the Gauchos beat the Titans, 3-1.