SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Ross McPhie's beautiful chip shot in the 58th minute would be the only goal of the night as the Cal State Fullerton men's soccer team got its third-straight victory with a 1-0 road win over the University of San Francisco at Negoesco Stadium on Friday night.
"This was a good, gutsy and grity win versus a well-coached opponent," coach George Kuntz said. "The conditions with the weather, field and fans were challenging, but credit the effort of these young men who are using lessons learned earlier in the season. We felt tactically that our team had a good plan and it was effective. It's only one game and all that matters now is preparing for another well-coached opponent on Sunday."
With the victory, the Titans move to 4-3-0 on the year and have now won four of their last five matches with the last two being 1-0 wins. Fullerton also gets its second-straight win over the Dons as the Titans have outscored San Francisco, 4-0, in the last two contests.
Cal State Fullerton quickly made its presence known in the Dons attacking half to start as the team's leading goal-scorer Alex Heilmann put a shot on goal in the 6th minute, but San Francisco's goalkeeper Andre Glasnovic made the save.
From that point on, both teams put up strong defensive performances in the first 45 minutes as the Titans finished the half with three shots and four corners. Brandon West had a strong chance at goal in the final minutes, but the sophomore's shot went wide.
Fullerton held the Dons to only two shots and two corners in the first half of play.
To start the second, Paul-Andre Guerin made a magnificent save in the 48th minute as USF's Kevin De La Torre put up a power-strike in the top left corner, but the true freshman goalkeeper leaped up to make the save and keep the match scoreless.
In the 58th minute, Titan Ross McPhie got a through ball from Sam Molz and would put up a chip from 15-yards out that went right under the right corner of the top post and over the keeper's head to give Fullerton a 1-0 lead.
With the momentum back in the Titans favor, San Francisco continued to make noise in the attacking half as the Dons closest chance came in the 78th minute. Jordan Hughes had a long-distance strike that hit the top crossbar and got cleared away by the Fullerton defense.
Heilmann almost added a cushion to the Titans 1-0 lead in the 82nd minute when he had a nice strike off a corner kick from Nicolo D'Amato, but the Dons keeper made the save.
In the final seconds, San Francisco drew a free kick and two corners, but the Dons couldn't capitalize as the Titans held on to win the match, 1-0, and collected their third-straight win.
Up next for the Cal State Fullerton men's soccer squad is a matchup with St. Mary's on Sunday at 1 p.m. PT.
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