SEASIDE—Sunday's Chico State men's soccer match will be televised nationally. Friday's match at Cal State Monterey Bay did not even include a live stream. Even if they had seen it, Chico State's soccer fans may not have believed it.
Garrett Hogbin's half volley from 20 yards scorched the back of the net with less than a second remaining in regulation to send the match into overtime, and Samuel Licona scored the golden goal to give Chico State a 2-1 victory at Cal State Monterey Bay.
"I've been in this profession for a long time and that was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen," said Chico State Head Coach Felipe Restrepo of Hogbin's last-second (literally) goal.
It came following a long throw in as the 10-second countdown commenced. Eddie Zecena flicked it on and it pinballed around in the box.
"Three… two… one…" rang out over the public address system.
It bounced out to Hogbin whose volley bent up and over the keeper, dipped below the crossbar, and found the top left corner of the net as the horn sounded.
The Wildcats won it in the sixth minute of the second and final 10-minute overtime period. Alex Fluitt collected a ball in transition about 25 yards out from the Otters goal and drove a service toward the near post. Wildcats leading scorer Jeremiah Egujie dummied it (allowing it to roll past him) and Cooper Renteria flicked it on to the far post to Licona, who tapped it in for his first goal in a Chico State uniform.
The Wildcats improved to 4-2-1 overall and 2-1-0 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Cal State Monterey Bay fell to 1-5-0 overall and 0-3-0 in the CCAA. Three of the Otters' five losses have come in overtime. The other two came in on the road at 19th-ranked Cal State San Marcos and 23rd-ranked UC San Diego last weekend. Both finals were 2-1.
Samuel Licona's first goal as a Wildcat won
the match for Chico State.
The Wildcats are unbeaten in each of the last five meetings with the Otters and now lead the all-time series between the teams 16-7-2.
The match was scoreless until Cal State Monterey Bay broke through on a counterattack in the 72nd minute.
That was one of only two shots the Otters earned after a first half in which they outshot Chico State 6-3. After intermission, Chico State enjoyed advantages of 11-2 in shots, 6-2 in shots on goal, and 5-2 in corner kicks.
Wildcats goalkeeper Damion Lewis earned the win in goal, making four saves along the way.
Egujie finished with a team-high four shots and Hogbin had three. They each cracked three shots on goal.
The Wildcats will be back in action Sunday in a nationally-televised match at Cal State East Bay in Hayward. The 11:30 a.m. kickoff will be carried by Eleven Sports Network USA, which is available on national cable systems such as DIREC TV (channel 623), AT&T U-verse (channel 1665), and Verizon Fios (channel 597). Eleven Sports can be found on various other cable and OTT providers such as Google Fiber 251, RCN 571, Atlantic Broadband 501, and Hawaiian Telcom 1091. According to the company, Eleven Sports is available in 55 million homes.
A live stream of the match is also available online and will be available for video on demand viewing one hour after its completion.
