Sept. 2, 2012

Final Stats

DENVER, Colo. - Pat Reese scored his first career goal, putting away the equalizer in the 74th minute, while Omar Zeenni recorded six saves as the UC Davis men's soccer team remained unbeaten and battled Denver to a 1-1 draw on Sunday in Denver.

UC Davis improves to 1-0-3 on the year while Denver drops to 0-1-2.

The Aggies remain unbeaten to start the 2012 campaign and had held opponents scoreless for 358 minutes until Denver scored the first goal of Sunday's game in the 48th minute.

"We played good soccer for the second half and all of the overtimes," said head coach Dwayne Shaffer. "We weren't sharp to begin the game but it's been a long road trip and it's been two tough places to play so we didn't start as fast as we wanted to. The game was a little more physical than what we're accustomed to so it took the guys a little bit to adjust, but once we settled in and started playing I thought we played really well."

Denver narrowly outshot UC Davis by a 7-5 margin in the first half, but UC Davis commanded the second half. The Pioneers struck first, however, after Blake Shannon scored off a corner kick from Josh Wren. The ball dropped into the penalty area and Shannon collected the rebound before shooting and scoring inside the left post.

Reese and the Aggies responded, tying the game in the 74th minute. Ryan Gross received the ball on the right side of the field, sent a cross into the box and found Reese waiting. Reese flicked the ball across his body and found the inside of the left post to tie the game at 1-1.

It was the first goal for UC Davis since the 85th minute of the season opener against UNLV on Aug. 24.

"To respond right away was really good," said Shaffer. "It was a really nice goal. Up until that point, we'd had three or four close misses and we were playing really well. It was a hard-earned, well-deserved goal and at that point we picked it up a bit and had some great opportunities. I'm really happy with the team's attitude and their fighting spirit. We've been on the road for three games in a row and we've gotten three draws out of it. I like the position we're in and how hard we're fighting.

Reese led the Aggies offensively with four shots as UC Davis totaled 14 attempts. Shannon's five shots led the Pioneers, who finished with 21 shots.

Two of Zeenni's six saves came in the second overtime period. Denver goalkeeper Oliver Brown finished with two saves.

The Aggies close out a four-game road trip at San Francisco on Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.