SAN MARCOS—The season seemed to be slipping away from the Chico State men's soccer team. The Wildcats had lost three straight after a 7-1 start and trailed 1-0 at Cal State San Marcos at the half. They hadn't scored a goal in three and a half matches and were desperately searching for a foot hold.
 
That desperation was evident in the action that led to Alex Fluitt's equalizer. Fluitt tied the match on the fifth shot of a scramble in front of the Cougars net—the third off the foot of Fluitt.
 
In the 78^th-minute, Fluitt intercepted a goal kick and fed Jacob Chong for the match winner and a timely 2-1 victory at The Cage in San Marcos.
 
The match was wild, featuring a combined 10 yellow cards and a red (shown to Fluitt with 9:13 to play after he collected his second yellow) and 36 fouls.
 
The equalizer was wild, featuring two sprawling kick saves by the goalkeeper and another kick save by a defender.
 
The finish was wild. Time and time again Cal State San Marcos attempted to take advantage of the man advantage, only to be denied by the Wildcats' defense and goalkeeper Jose Paredes' excellent play on balls served into the box.
 
The result was exactly what the Wildcats needed, snapping their losing skid and lifting them above the California Collegiate Athletic Association postseason tournament line. Chico State is now 8-4-0 overall, 4-4-0 in the CCAA, and sixth in the conference standings, a point ahead of Cal State San Marcos (4-3-1, 3-3-2) with four matches to play.

 
Cal State San Marcos took an early lead after converting a free kick from 20 yards out following a foul just outside the top of the 18-yard box.
 
The Wildcats evened the match in a wild second-half scramble in front of the San Marcos net. An aggressive double team along the left flank set things up for the Wildcats. Anthony Kaski won the ball and chipped the ball ahead to Matt Hafizi along the left sideline. Hafizi made his way toward the corner flag and lifted a cross toward Fluitt, who attempted to out-dual two defenders for the ball. Instead, the ball deflected off one of the defenders' back and bounced toward Andrew Hazzard just inside the 18-yard box. Hazzard mis-hit his volley attempt, getting only a piece of the ball, which rolled forward to Fluitt. He turned a took a shot from the penalty spot only to have Cougars goalkeeper Matt Escareno kick his foot out to deflect it away. The ball rolled out to Chong, but his try was also denied by a sprawling Escareno.
 
The ball deflected back to Fluitt who finally got it by Escareno, only to see a defender stick his back foot up to keep the ball from reaching the goal and deflecting it back out to Fluitt. The time the senior midfielder finished, driving a hard shot off the inside of the near post and in for his second collegiate goal.
 
The Wildcats nearly took the lead in the 59^th minute when Mikey Hirsch connected with Chong inside the 18-yard box and the freshman hit a blast from a touch angle that clanged off the near post.
 
Chunked a goal kick that Fluitt intercepted about 40 yards out, suddenly giving the Wildcats a three-on-three attack. Fluitt took a long touch into the right-hand side of the 18-yard box. With two of the defenders running at Fluitt, Chong was left man marked on his run into the box. He momentarily veered toward the far post but then cut inside as Fluitt's perfectly-timed pass came. Chong stuck out his right boot to meet it, deflecting it to beat the keeper far post in the 54^th minute.
 
The entire flurry, from the time the ball was served until it Fluitt finally drove it into the back of the net, lasted 11 seconds.
 
Chico State finished the match with an 18-10 edge in shots on goal and 4-3 advantage in corner kicks.
 
The Wildcats were whistled for a season-high 21 fouls and carded five times. They'd never been cautioned more than twice in any previous match this season.
 
Meanwhile, Cal State San Marcos was cautioned six times and whistled for 15 fouls.  
 
The Wildcats will now take their longest break of the season before playing at Stanislaus State on Wednesday, October 30. After that, they'll play their final three regular-season matches at University Soccer Stadium.