Beavers Persevere; Drop Double-Overtime Thriller to UC Davis

September 9, 2011

DAVIS, Calif. – The Oregon State men’s soccer team played a man down and battled through difficult weather conditions to force double overtime for the second consecutive game, but was unable to keep a clean sheet, as UC Davis scored in the 105th minute to edge the Beavers, 1-0, on Friday afternoon.

“Obviously there were some challenging scenarios, but we’re pretty disappointed in the way we didn’t get anything out of this game,” Oregon State head coach Steve Simmons said.  “The guys responded valiantly when we had to go down a man.  To fight like that and not get anything out of it on the road is disappointing.”

On an oppressively hot day with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, neither team would give, or could gain, any ground.  Steve Spangler made five saves through 90 minutes of regulation and Oregon State fended off 18 chances by the Aggies to force overtime.

OSU was forced to play a man down for the last 25 minutes of the contest when the referee issued a red card for an intentional hand ball in the box and awarded a penalty kick to UC Davis.  John Joslin took the one-on-one chance for the Aggies, but was denied by Spangler to keep the game scoreless.

The first overtime saw each squad generate two shots, but it was Davis’ fourth shot in the second overtime which finally found its way through to the back of the net to claim the victory for the Aggies.  After Eddie Manella had his earlier shot saved by Spangler in the final overtime period, the midfielder finally broke through at 104:11 on the clock when he took a pass from Mustafa Chopan and beat the keeper to the lower left corner from 12 yards out.

“Everybody has to do their job and at the end of the day the guys defended well,” Simmons said.  “We need to ask more out of our attack so that we take some pressure off our defense.”

UC Davis held a 4-2 advantage in corner kicks and a 24-7 edge in shots.  Alex Penny, Khiry Shelton and Chris Harms all put balls on net for the Beavers and Emery Welshman added three shots of his own in the loss.

“We had a couple of good chances, but to be fair we need to create more,” Simmons said.  “We have the personnel to do so … [and] that’s a scenario we are definitely going to want to improve.  We will work on it and it will get better.”

With his six saves, keeper Steve Spangler tied Packy Deenihan (2005-07) for third place in Oregon State history in that category (196).

The game marked the first time the Beavers have played back-to-back double overtime contests since November of 2007 and the first time the team has played consecutive games that weren’t decided in regulation since 2009.

Oregon State’s record now stands at 0-3-1 as the team readies for a quick turnaround and a matchup against Sacramento State on Sunday at 1 p.m.  

Trending Videos
 
IMG Academy Top 150 Rankings
see full ranking:
Boys Girls