Burlington, Vt. – Cal State Fullerton's men's soccer squad dropped its season opener on Friday afternoon to the University of Vermont in double-overtime at Virtue Field, 3-2.
"Our team dominated most facets of this game, possession, corners (19-6) and matched shots," coach George Kuntz said. "We have to be better at finishing. We had clear chances off the post and were cleared off their line. We will learn from this and work to be better at dealing with these situations. We will work on getting better at defending individually and as a group and playing cohesively."
"We are disappointed in the outcome, but can take awa numerous lessons about our team, our decisions and our approach as we continue this path."
The Titans (0-1-0) maintained possession in the attacking half for most of the first half and continued to make Vermont uncomfortable in the box, but Bernard Yeboah put the Catamounts on the board first with a shot in the top left corner to give his team a 1-0 edge to end the first half.
"We didn't finish a lot of opportunities in the beginning of the match that should've been put away, we were punished later in the half for that," goalkeeper David Elias said.
In the second, Fullerton's Ronaldo Pineda came out firing as the sophomore rocketed a shot from 40-yards out over the goalkeeper's head to knot the score at one and give the Titans some early momentum.
However, Vermont didn't wait long to answer the Fullerton goal as Yeboah scored his second goal of the match just 11 minutes later in the 62nd to give the Catamounts a 2-1 lead.
Down a goal, the Titans continued to put the pressure on Vermont in the final 20 minutes as Fullerton induced 19 corners in total, but the equalizer would come in the 78th minute from senior Alex Heilmann who received a beautiful pass from Robert Coronado and shot it right in the center of the net to tie the score at two.
"We are a good comeback team and we put up a good fight with the two goals from Ronaldo Pineda and Alex Heilmann." Elias said.
In overtime, the Titans had all the momentum by scoring those crucial goals in the second half to force the extra period, but they couldn't convert on their chances.
With two minutes remaining in the second overtime, the match looked like it was going to end in a draw, but a long pass over Fullerton's backline gave Vermont's Brian Wright a clear shot at goal and he netted it to give the Catamounts their first ever win over the Titans.
"We have to be able to score first and maintain that lead for 90 minutes," Elias said. "Hopefully against UCLA we can make that change and test ourselves there."
The Titans will look to bounce back on Monday as they take on No. 16 UCLA at 7 p.m. PT at Drake Stadium in Westwood, California.
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