Luwigs' OT Goal Gives Gonzaga Road Sweep

September 8, 2013

            SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Lars Ludwigs took a pass from Nick Hamer and buried a shot to a wide open lower left corner at 106:43 Sunday as Gonzaga University’s men’s soccer team ended a successful weekend with a 1-0 double-overtime victory at Cal Poly.

            Coming on the heels of Friday’s 2-0 victory at 15th-ranked UC Santa Barbara, the Bulldogs ran their record to 2-1-0 with the road sweep, the first true road sweep for the Zags since winning at Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco in 2008.

            As was the case Friday when Gonzaga kept its unblemished record intact at 4-0-1 at UCSB, the Bulldogs also remained perfect in the series at Cal Poly (2-2-0) in running their record to 5-0-0 at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. Sunday was the first meeting between the teams since 2004 when Gonzaga took a 2-0 road victory in a series the Bulldogs lead 6-3-0.

            Gonzaga, which controlled the first half only to see Cal Poly gain the second half territorial edge, dominated the opening overtime and had a couple of solid chances to win.

            Hamer nearly ended the match in the 94th minute when he took a low, hard shot from the left side inside the 18 that keeper Wade Hamilton had to go down and made the stop. A minute later it was Hamer’s brother, Zach, who found the goal post. In the 98th minute it was Nick again with the opportunity from in close and was denied by Hamilton, Gonzaga unable to get a foot on the rebound.

            Both teams had numerous chances in the opening half. Gonzaga’s Josh Phillips had a header that Hamilton was able to stop in the 16th minute, and Cal Poly countered just minutes later when Mackenzie Pridham’s shot from 30 yards was knocked down by Zag keeper Ryan Caballero and Cal Poly’s George Malki was unable to get to the rebound.

            Nick Hamer was denied in the 21st minute when his shot was knocked away to the right by Hamilton, and in the 35th minute the Zags Nikolai Littleton’s free kick from 25 yards to the left post was stopped by a diving Hamilton.

            In the 38th minute Cal Poly’s Chris Bernardi took a pass from Matt LaGrassa and had an open shot to the left side that Caballero was able to get a hand on for the save, one of his four in the match. Late it in half it was Cal Poly again with a solid chance, Ari Lassiter unable to get off a hard, left-footed shot from 12 feet that Caballero was able to play out of harm’s way.

            Cal Poly out-shot Gonzaga 5-0 in the second half but got just one shot on goal, Caballero coming out to off the right post to down the angle and stop Williams Medrano’s point-blank shot.

            The Bulldogs will be idle until next Sunday when they travel to UNLV.

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