Oct. 17, 2007

Final Stats

DAVIS, Calif. - Junior Sule Anibaba converted his fifth penalty kick of the season, seniors Paul Cain and Nicholas Lind added scores and freshman Ryan McCowan made four saves in his first collegiate start to lead UC Davis to a 3-1 Big West Conference men's soccer victory over Cal State Northridge at Aggie Soccer Stadium Wednesday afternoon.

The Aggies, who are now unbeaten in their last three games against the Matadors, improve their overall record to 7-3-2 and 2-2-1 against conference opponents. The loss is the first for the Matadors in conference as they fall to 0-1-3 in the Big West and 4-3-4 overall.

In his first collegiate start, McCowan recorded a game-high four saves and allowed only one goal to post the victory. Last weekend's game at Cal Poly was McCowan's first collegiate game.

"It was time to make a change, defensively," said head coach Dwayne Shaffer. "We put in a couple new defenders and changed the goalkeeper in hopes that a new chemistry (in the backfield) would help. I think Ryan McCowan played very well today and we're going to stay with what works."

Anibaba has now scored a team-leading seven goals on the season as he converted his fifth penalty kick of the season in the 33rd minute. The penalty shot was awarded after junior Quincy Amarikwa was knocked down inside the box. Anibaba looked to be going right but directed the ball to the left corner of the goal past diving Matador goalkeeper Kevin Guppy.

Cal State Northridge tied the score just four minutes later as Mattias Bonevehi scored his first goal of the season off an assist from Camilo Rojas. Rojas crossed the ball from the left corner of the box onto a streaking Benvehi who finished the play in front of the goal from about five yards out.

After over 25 minutes of scoreless play, Nicholas Lind put the Aggies up for good in the 37th minute as he stole a pass from a Matador defender and dribbled it past Guppy for his second score of the season. Cain would add an insurance goal in the 67th minute - his first strike of the season. Paul Marcoux supplied his first assist of the season on the goal after dribbling past two defenders to get a nice cross off from the left side of the box.

"The win is what we look for," said Shaffer. "Cal State Northridge plays the best overall soccer out of any team in the Big West Conference and for us to get a victory over them is outstanding. I'm glad we were able to pull this one out today."

Cal State Northridge managed to outshoot the Aggies by a count of 16-13 and also held the advantage in corner kicks, 9-6. Both teams got off five shots on goal. Junior Dan Campbell was the only other Aggie to get a shot on goal.

Rojas, Moy Gomez and Fergie Agwu each took three shots. Sunghyun Kim was the only other Matador to take more than one shot in the game.

The match itself was a very clean affair between the two conference foes as only one yellow card was issued.

UC Davis returns home this Saturday for a conference game against Cal State Fullerton at 1 p.m.