CSUB wins in overtime at home against Grand Canyon

Taylor Long

October 7, 2017

CSUB’s senior defender Jamie Carey-Morrell dribbles against UC Davis’ Matt Baringer as Chase Rhode and CSUB’s Hugo Vinales look on during the first half of Thursday’s game at CSU Bakersfield.

Reporter

The CSU Bakersfield men’s soccer team came through with a 3-2 win in overtime over Grand Canyon University on Friday, Oct. 6 at the Main Soccer Field.

Six minutes into overtime, redshirt-sophomore defender Sebastian Mentel drove the ball into the right corner of the net, giving the Roadrunners a 3-2 victory.

“Having the home field advantage and celebrating the 1997 division II National Championships gave us the momentum we needed to have the upper hand in the game,” said Mentel.

GCU took the lead in the first half during the 39th minute. GCU freshman defender Malik Smith managed to get a header into the net after a corner kick from senior defender Khadim Seye.

“GCU is a direct team, and we tried to nullify that tonight,” said CSUB Head coach Richie Grant.

Sophomore defender Jérémie Charron evened up the score for the Roadrunners in the 55th minute. Charron scored his first goal of the season off of a free kick from senior defender Jamie Carey-Morrell.

“In the forward line we have players who can score goals and we saw that tonight, we were resilient and really came together as a team, and that’s why we got this win in my opinion,” said Carey-Morrell.

GCU fired back in the 61st minute of the game with a goal from senior forward Niki Jackson.

“We were coming off of a big win from Utah, so we wanted to keep that momentum. We haven’t lost a game at home so we felt pretty confident coming into the game,” said Grant.

2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the CSUB’s 1997 NCAA Division II National Championships and members of that team were honored during halftime.

Carey-Morrell tied up the game at the 78th minute with an incredible bicycle kick off of a cross to the middle from redshirt-sophomore defender Sebastian Mentel, leading the Runners into overtime.

GCU outshot the Roadrunners 23-13, but ultimately CSUB came out on top. During the game, the Roadrunners received two yellow cards and had a total of 11 fouls. CSUB is now 2-1 in the WAC and 4-6 overall.

“We try not to give away as much as possible in terms of goals and shots, said Carey-Morell. “In the first half, we did that a bit better and in the second half. We let them into the game a little more ,but we came back strong and finished with a win.”

The Roadrunners will host the University of Nevada Las Vegas on Sunday, Oct. 8th against UNLV at 1 p.m.