Oct. 23, 2010
Irvine, Calif. -
Courtesy UCI Sports Information
The No. 8 UC Irvine men's soccer team (12-1-2, 5-0-1) defeated Cal State Fullerton (5-8-2), 3-4-0) 7-2 Saturday night in Big West Conference action at Anteater Stadium.
UCI scored 7 goals for the first time since a win at Fullerton in 2001 but gave up only its sixth and seventh goals of the season.
Zach Olow collected the ball and passed it to Spencer Thompson,who gave it right back to Olow who beat the keeper one-on-one to put UCI up 1-0 in the third minute. Thompson would make it 2-0 after he knocked in a throw in by Jimmy Turner in the 14th minute. Joel Bagby capitalized after Fullerton miscleared a corner kick as he sent it inside the left post for a 3-0 lead in the 23rd minute.
Miguel Ibarra sent a corner kick to Corey Attaway, who passed it to Brett Berman with Berman knocking it in from 20 yards out for a 4-0 UCI lead in the 27th minute. Ibarra sent another corner kick into the box where it was headed in by Amani Walker in the 37th minute to put the Anteaters up 5-0. Attaway headed in a corner kick by Christian Hernandez in the 59th minute to put UCI up 6-0. Kevin Venegas took a free kick for the Titans in the 66th minute and put it inside the box where Jesse Escalante put it over the line to cut the lead to 6-1. Christopher Santa had a shot saved by the keeper with the rebound coming out to Zlatan Kuckovic, who put it into the back of the net for a 7-1 lead.
Goalkeeper Andrew Fontein left the match at that point allowing Justin Tucker to see his first collegiate action. A yellow card inside the box on Everett Pitts in the 81st minute gave Fullerton a penalty kick. Venegas took the kick for the Titans and went to the lower left corner where it was saved by Tucker. The `Eater defense misplayed the ball and it was picked up by Oscar Medina on the right side. Medina passed the ball to Venegas who hit the ball right at the keeper and had it go through the keeper into the net to make it 7-2.
Fontein had two saves in 73 minutes while Tucker had four saves in 17 minutes for the `Eaters. Keeper Trevor Whiddon had three saves for the Titans.