DES MOINES, Iowa – Cal Poly scored two goals in the final 10 minutes to push past the Drake men's soccer team, 4-2, in the season opener for both teams at Cownie Stadium Friday.
Both teams scored early in the first period and then played nearly 60 minutes of tied soccer before Drake (0-1) scored a go-ahead goal. But a penalty kick in the 76th minute, followed by two more unanswered goals accounted for the Cal Poly (1-0) win.
The Mustangs held an 18-11 advantage in shots, but balls on target were nearly equal at 8-7 in favor of Cal Poly.
Drake controlled the contest early with Bryan Jantsch (Mission Hills, Kan.) scoring eight minutes into the game. The senior took a perfectly placed ball from redshirt freshman Ben LeMay (Hugo, Minn.) in space and beat his defender to the goal to kiss the ball off the right post into the net.
Nearly seven minutes later, Cal Poly's John Chronopoulos put a ball into the upper left-hand corner of the goal just off the outstretched hand of Drake goalkeeper Rich Gallagher (Lake Bluff, Ill.) off a pass from Chase Minter.
The score remained knotted until the 74th minute when sophomore Danton Irelan (Ottumwa, Iowa) was a fed a nice through pass in the box from sophomore Eric Williams (West Des Moines, Iowa) and buried the ball into the right corner of the goal.
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs couldn't hold on to that lead as less than two minutes later, Cal Poly, was awarded a penalty kick. The Mustangs' Mackenzie Pridham buried the penalty kick. In the 81st minute, Pridham added an assist when Mick Hocker pounded his deflected shot into the upper right hand corner. Cal Poly tacked on an insurance goal with four seconds left as Pridham struck again by placing a Minter feed into the right pocket of the goal from the left side of the box.
The Bulldogs were not without additional scoring opportunities, however, as the team put shots on net and made strong runs at the goal in the second half. Just seconds into the second half, LeMay put an excellent header on goal that Cal Poly keeper Wade Hamilton managed to deflect with a last-second dart of his arm. In the 67th minute, Jantsch pounded a shot on goal that Hamilton made another stellar save on as he finished with five stops. His Drake counterpart, stopped four shots.
The Bulldogs return to action on Sunday evening against No. 14 Tulsa. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Cownie Stadium.
