Matadors Eliminated in NCAA Tournament

Under cover of dark, low rain clouds, Seattle-Pacific University raided the Cal State Northridge soccer team Saturday night, beating the Matadors, 3-2, at North Campus Stadium. The loss eliminates Northridge from the NCAA Division II championship tournament.

“We stole it from them,” Seattle-Pacific Coach Cliff McCrath said. “I’m not taking a thing away from my team, but we did, in a sense, come in here and just take it from them. To do that, to come in here in front of all these fans and take one away from this team, well, that’s something else.”

McCrath was not exaggerating. It was only the fourth Matador loss in 30 games at North Campus Stadium.

The Matadors played, perhaps, their best game of the season, applying defensive pressure and tenacious offense. But it only takes a few mistakes in soccer.

The Falcon’s Mark Faller picked up the bounce on teammate Peter Hattrup’s penalty kick and headed it over the hands of CSUN goalie Phil Heaver to put SPU up, 1-0, at 39:45 in the first half. The quick goal didn’t shake the Matadors or the more than 2,000 CSUN fans who weathered the cold evening.

The Matadors went on to out-shoot the Falcons, 9-3, before the half.

But things went poorly for CSUN in the early minutes of the second half. At 37:49, Hattrup fired a penalty kick past a diving Heaver and the Falcons led, 2-0. But the Matadors had just begun to play.

Three minutes after Hattrup’s goal, CSUN team captain Mike McAndrew found himself dribbling all along down field. As a SPU defender made his move, McAndrew saw Rodney Batt out of the corner of his eye. McAndrew passed to Batt, who went one-on-one against SPU goalie John Richardson. Batt didn’t blink. He fired the ball past Richardson for the Matadors’ first score and his ninth of the season.

A little more than a minute later, Paul Stevenson found Frank Cubillos in front of the SPU net and fed him the ball. Cubillos banged in his 14th goal of the season. Suddenly it was 2-2, and the home crowd erupted.

But the cheering and chanting was muffled when SPU’s Craig Ottosen slipped through a gang of CSUN defenders and fired at Heaver. The shot bounced off Heaver and back to Ottosen who fired again and scored to end CSUN’s season at 17-4-1.

“I learned a long time ago not to feel bad,” CSUN Coach Marwan Ass’ad said. “You know, man, we had 90 minutes to win it. It was the same thing last year. We played a team we should have beat and we lost.”

He was referring to CSUN’s 2-1, second-round loss to Missouri-St. Louis last season.

“We took it to them and we had our chances, but, you know, if we get beat by a better team I don’t care. But this . . . “

Said McAndrew: “We worked hard and we didn’t give them anything. I think we really pushed, and that third goal wasn’t much of a shot. I’m not taking it away from them, but you play your hearts out and they get that last goal--it’s hard to lose like that.

“They got a lot of breaks and they took advantage of them. The great teams always take advantage of them.”