No. 22 Cal Poly Pomona Returning Home from Northern California with Fourth Straight Draw
TURLOCK, Calif. - The No. 22 Cal Poly Pomona men's soccer team scored first and played the back end with man advantages, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw with host Stanislaus State in California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) action Sunday afternoon on Senior Day at Warrior Stadium.
Following its fourth successive tie, CPP is 8-1-6 overall and 3-0-5 in the CCAA. At the conclusion of a tough stretch in which they played five of six games away from home, the Broncos are 3-1-4 on the road in 2024. Their unbeaten streak has reached 13 games at 7-0-6, eclipsing a 12-gamer (10-0-2) from Sept. 15 to Oct. 31, 2021. This is now the program's longest single-season run since a 16-gamer (15-0-1) to open the 2014 campaign, Sept. 4-Oct. 24. Seventh-place Stan State moves to 6-4-5 overall and 2-2-4 in league play.
Cal Poly Pomona, No. 3 Cal State LA and Cal State Dominguez Hills sat in a three-way tie for first in the CCAA table at the start of play on Sunday. The Golden Eagles rallied for a 2-1 win over Cal State San Marcos in Los Angeles, the Toros blanked Cal State East Bay in Carson, 1-0, and Chico State got an early goal to edge Cal State San Bernardino at home, 1-0, in earlier finishes Sunday, so the Broncos now share fourth place with Cal State Monterey Bay, two points back of the leaders.
The game got off to a quick start as both teams already had registered a shot on goal within the first 93 seconds, with the two goalkeepers up to the task. In the fourth minute, Warrior net-minder Angel Ruiz-Hernandez denied for the second time already Jakob Singh, who was back in the starting lineup for fellow junior forward Mads Frederiksen. Frederiksen was serving out his one-game suspension for Friday's red card in Chico.
After five shots in the first 15 minutes, three of them on frame, the Broncos had their opening goal at 14:55. It came from the penalty spot after an indiscretion in the 18-yard box by Stan State freshman Jose Ponce, with fifth-year senior midfielder Max Laguna once again true with his try. The Anaheim product is a perfect five-for-five on penalty kicks this season, and continues to top the CPP chart in goals scored at seven, assists at four, and total points at 18.
The home side leveled matters at 28:16 through Elio Corral. The forward found the bottom right for his third of 2024 to tie for the team lead, with fellow senior Alexis Ramirez providing his second assist.
The score remained 1-1 at the break, though Stan State came close to grabbing the advantage in the 37th minute, only for Alecxander Cuellar's shot to glance off the right post. CPP generated four corner kicks and two shot attempts, one on target, over the last 3:41.
Just before the midway point of the second half in the 67th minute, senior reserve midfielder Mike Moser saw his shot saved out for a corner kick by Ruiz-Hernandez.
CPP gained an opportunity to go on and win the game when Ruiz-Hernandez was issued a straight red card at 78:18, forcing the hosts to bring on freshman backup goalie Luis Aparicio for the remaining 11:42.
The Broncos were further helped at 85:31 as junior defender Sammy Villanueva was shown the exit, making for an 11-on-nine finish. The visitors pelted the Warriors with three corner kicks and a pair of shots over the final 2:43, but were simply unable to find a winner.
Fourth-year junior goalkeeper Luke Garciduenas wound up with three saves. Ruiz-Hernandez, a first-year junior transfer from Merced College who had played every minute prior to the late ejection, compiled six stops. Laguna's penalty kick snapped his season-best shutout streak at 345:40. Aparicio notched a first collegiate save in his debut.
CPP outshot Stan State 22-13 on the afternoon, including 7-2 after the first red card. In just his sixth collegiate start, Singh matched his single-game bests of five total shots and a game-high three attempts on target. Bronco junior midfielder Woody Angell led all players with his six tries.
Up Next
Cal Poly Pomona now finally returns home for an extended period, rounding out the 2024 regular season with a three-game home stand. The stretch begins this Friday night, Nov. 1, with the first men's soccer edition of the newly-established Cal Poly Clash. The primetime kickoff against Cal Poly Humboldt (3-8-4, 2-5-1 CCAA) inside Kellogg Stadium is slated for 7 p.m., after the fourth-ranked Bronco women take on the Lumberjacks at 4:30 p.m. All CCAA men's and women's soccer matches feature live streaming video through FloSports.
Bronco Bits
- CPP is 59-16-24 (.717) overall under sixth-year (fifth season) head coach Matt O'Sullivan, who on Sept. 22 took over the No. 1 position in the program record book for wins.
- O'Sullivan made two changes from Friday, with Jakob Singh starting for Mads Frederiksen up front and Joseph Spencer drawing his third start in place of Liam McFarlane in the back.
- Daniel Gutierrez and Max Laguna are the lone Broncos to start all 15 matches.
- O'Sullivan has now used 12 different starting lineups through 15 games.
- Spencer, Luke Garciduenas and tri-captains Fin Jackson and Jasper Winslow played the full 90 minutes.
- Including postseason tiebreakers, Laguna is a perfect seven-for-seven from the penalty spot as a collegian.
- Out of 1,350 minutes played this season, the Broncos have trailed for just 195:27.
- CPP produced 20-plus shots for the sixth time in 2024, and earned a season-high 11 corner kicks.
- This is the fourth straight year that CPP has produced an unbeaten streak of double-digit games.
- CPP leads the all-time series, 18-6-4, now an unbeaten 9-0-3 over the last 12 matchups since a 2-1 road loss over a decade ago on Oct. 6, 2013 (current Bronco assistant coach Jose Ortega set up the lone CPP goal).
- The Broncos are 8-3-4 against the Warriors in Turlock (3-0-3 with back-to-back 1-1 ties since that 2013 result), and 3-0-2 under O'Sullivan (1-0-2 on the road).
- CPP is 74-23-22 as a nationally-ranked program since 2002, including 36-10-21 under O'Sullivan and 8-1-6 in 2024.
- The Broncos and Warriors were picked second and 11th, respectively, in the CCAA preseason poll, with CPP garnering one of 12 first-place votes.
- CPP is still fourth in this week's United Soccer Coaches West Region poll.
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