The Chico State men's soccer team went to the half up 3–1 in Tuesday's opening-round California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament match. But they knew from first-hand experience (a four-goal flurry in the span of 3:39 in the first half), that goals could come fast and furious with two talented offensive sides.
 
They did. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, all three were scored by Cal State LA's Damian Roszczyk in the final 29 minutes of the match. The third, a header at the near post off a corner kick with just 1:29 to play, gave the Golden Eagles a 4–3 victory.
 
It was sheer heartbreak for the Wildcats, who now await Monday's NCAA Championship Tournament selection show to see if their strong strength of schedule is enough to get them in the field with a record of 10-6-2 (10-5-2 versus Division II competition).
 
Cal State LA, now 13-4-2, advances to the CCAA Tournament semifinals to face UC San Diego Friday.

Roszczyk entered the match with just one goal on the season, but scored on a volley from six yards out to cut Chico State's lead to 3–2 with 28:02 to play. He evened the match in the 78^th minute with a shot following a wild scrum in the box that Chico State goalkeeper Damion Lewis got a hand on and flicked off the post and out. But the linesman ruled that the ball had already crossed the goal line.
 
The Golden Eagles opened the scoring 5:56 into the match on Steven Eberle's long ball down the right flank that Julian Zamora ran onto before getting in alone on Lewis and rifling a shot inside the far post.
 
The lead did not last for long.
 
Jeremiah Egujie evened things up less than a minute later, assisted by Carter Johnson, with a blast inside the far post from the top-left corner of the 18-yard box.
 
Egujie gave the Wildcats the lead 1:02 after that. Johnson brought down Fabian Roman's corner kick in the box and touched a pass to Egujie, who found the back of the net from 14 yards for his 10^th goal of the season.
 
Chico State stretched the lead to 3–1 1:37 later, again off a corner kick. Roman's corner went to the near post this time where Justin Bethke buried it inside the near post with a header.
 
The Wildcats nearly tacked on another goal early in the second half, but Golden Eagles goalkeeper Steven Barrera stopped Egujie's blast from outside the right post with a sprawling save.
 
Lewis also came up big in goal for the Wildcats on a couple of occasions, denying a pair of blasts that looked like sure goals.
 
The Wildcats have now played 13 matches against teams with a record of .500 or better—and boast a 6-5-2 record in those matches—and faced five of the seven teams ranked with them in the region.