By Nate Sanchez
Sports Editor
The CSUB men’s soccer team recorded its first home conference win of the season on Friday against San Jose State, followed by a loss to Seattle University on Sunday. While the ’Runners now have four wins on the regular season, Head Coach Simon Tobin notched his 300th victory in 27 years at the helm of the ’Runners.
Eduardo Caldaza tries to lift CSUB to a victory against Seattle University on Sunday, Oct. 20. CSUB eventually lost 2-1.
“I didn’t know I had 300 wins,” Tobin said after the game. “If you coach anywhere long enough, you’re gonna get a lot of wins. I’ve been here 27 years. It’s nice, but I wasn’t aware of it.”
With Friday’s win, Tobin became the 16th active coach in Division I men’s soccer with 300 wins and the 91st coach to do so at any NCAA level. The last time CSUB met SJSU, it scored a total of seven goals in a 4-3 victory for the ’Runners. However, this win did not come easily, as the game was dominated by defense. Despite the ’Runners out-shooting the Spartans 14-8 in regulation, the two teams combined for only one goal.
That goal came with less than five minutes remaining in regulation time. At 85:06, freshman forward Giovanni Godoy scored the game winner from 10 yards away, assisted by freshman midfielder Jonathan Colunga.
“I saw the opportunity when my teammate gave me a perfect through pass,” Godoy said. “I just put it in.”
Redshirt junior midfielder David Velasquez rushes past Spartan defenders during the
’Runners’ 1-0 victory over San Jose State on Oct. 18.
“Godoy is a freshman who has a big future ahead of him,” said Tobin. “If he keeps his head up, he could end up in MLS the same as Gyasi [Zardes]. It’s hard for anyone attacking-wise to step into shoes like that, so we have to be a bit more balanced in our attack instead of having just one great player.”
The Spartans fired back immediately with a close shot that was thought to be a goal, but soon overturned.
“I was proud of the way our team kept their shape and kept battling,” said Spartan Head Coach Gary St. Clair. “I think we were unlucky not to score a goal tonight, either the one that was called back or any of the other shots early on right in front of the goal.”
While the ’Runners celebrated a close call victory on Friday, not all was well in the Spartan camp. Following the ’Runners’ goal, Spartan freshman defender Dylan West was issued a red card for a hard foul. The Spartans accrued a total of 13 fouls by game’s end. “Bakersfield of course is a very technical side and we have a brand new team,” said St. Clair.
“There’s very little to separate the margins between winning and losing at this level and I think we saw that tonight.”
The ’Runners played again on Sunday, Oct. 20 against WAC leaders Seattle University in a 2-1 loss. Freshman forward Hugo Vinales scored CSUB’s only goal in the match, assisted by Colunga, whose assist led to a ’Runner victory just two days before. The ’Runners next home game will be on Friday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Main Soccer Field.
