Sunday, November 11, 2012

HAYWARD, Calif. - Simon Fraser rallied from a 1-0 halftime deficit to defeat Cal State Stanislaus 2-1 Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Division II West Regional men's soccer tournament at Cal State Hayward.

In the process, SFU became the first non-American team to win a game in a  National Collegiate Athletics Association national tournament.

"First-class performance, I think our guys showed an immense amount of character tonight," said SFU head coach Alan Koch. "We just told them at halftime not to push the panic button. Justin Wallace scored a world-class goal on a big-time strike and JD Blakley made a big-time save before (Lucas) Ferritto scored a big-time goal of his own."

Ferrirro's unassisted goal at 60:21 gave Simon Fraser (17-1-1) its 17th win of the season.

SFU trailed 1-0 for 33 minutes after Josue Barajas got the first and only goal of the opening half for Cal State Stanislaus, when he took a pass into the box and beat Clan goalkeeper JD Blakley (Saskatoon, SK) at 18:15.

After a sluggish first half the Clan came out on fire in the second.

In the 52nd minute, Wallace (Kamloops, BC) tied it up for SFU when his shot from 12 yards out to the right side of the net ricocheted off the post and he scored on his own rebound to tie the match.

In the 61st minute, Stanislaus had a great opportunity to take the lead back but Blakley stood tall in his head-to-head match up with the shooter, stopping the shot from in close to keep the match knotted at one.

Immediately following Blakley’s big save, Ferritto (Hamilton, ON) got the ball in close and while the Warrior keeper made the initial save, Ferritto banged in the rebound to give the Clan the 2-1 lead and eventually the win. 

Blakley’s save was one of several spectacular stops he made to keep the Clan in it, as he made a total of five in the match.

"We came out strong and we fought for everything," said Blakley. "It was a team effort and after we got the first goal, we just built off of it. I give all the credit to my teammates.  They didn't make me work too hard and I owe the success to them."

Clint Long made seven saves in the game for Cal State Stanislaus.

The win means the Clan will now advance to the regional championship game against Grand Canyon next Thursday or Friday.  The winner qualifies for the national quarterfinals on Saturday or Sunday.

Grand Canyon tied Cal State L.A. 1-1, but advanced on penalty kicks 5-4.  Coincidentlly that was exactly the same way Cal State L.A. reached the regional semifinals on Thursday when it tied Seattle Pacific 1-1.