SDSU Wins Soccer Playoff in a Shootout
San Diego State came within a foot of elimination and then regrouped to defeat host Southern Methodist in a shootout, 6-5, in an NCAA Division I soccer playoff match Saturday afternoon in front of 1,765 at Ownby Stadium.
The Aztecs (18-5), ranked 20th, advance to meet UCLA in next week’s tournament quarterfinals. Fifth-ranked SMU, which had won 29 of its previous 30 home matches, ended its season at 13-4-1.
Forward Kyle Whittemore’s goal in the sixth round of the shootout sailed freely into the upper-left corner of the net to give the Aztecs a 6-5 edge.
In the bottom half of the fifth round, goalie Bryan Finnerty had saved SDSU from elimination by diving to his left and barely deflecting Larry McPhail’s shot wide.
“This was an unbelievable game, and I’m just thankful to have gotten the chance to win it,” Whittemore said. “Bryan made a great save to keep us in it. We got down, but we scraped and pulled through. Today, we had lots of heroes. I just happened to be the last one.”
With 2:32 left in regulation, SDSU tied the score, 2-2, on Eric Drabb’s left-footed chip that barely beat SMU goalie Hank Henry to the net. Before the shot, Henry had collided with Whittemore at the penalty arc to give Drabb the opening.
The teams played to a 2-2 standoff during 90 minutes of regulation and 20 more in overtime. Then came the shootout. The teams alternate with five one-on-one chances each against the opposing goalie from 12 yards out. If the score remains tied after the five shootout rounds, the shootout continues one round at a time until there is an unmatched goal.
In the first round, San Diego State’s Curt Lewis scored and Finnerty stopped Mike Agnew of SMU to give the Aztecs a one-goal advantage.
In the second round, both teams scored, with goals by Chris Keenan of SDSU and Jamie Hartley of SMU.
But the Aztecs fell one goal behind when neither Ken Taylor nor Eric Wynalda could score in the third and fourth rounds. In those rounds, Gerry Graham and Matt McLaughlin scored for SMU.
That set up the fifth round, with the Aztecs trailing, 5-4, and facing elimination if Gerardo Jimenez didn’t score. He did, tying the score at 5-5, but the Aztecs still would have lost if SMU’s McPhail had scored in the final half of the fifth round.
In the sixth round, Whittemore answered with a clean winner, and a shot by SMU’s Paul Davidson bounced off the left post to seal SDSU’s victory.
“It seemed like we weren’t going to win the game for a long time,” Aztec Coach Chuck Clegg said. “We fought back hard in the second half and then throughout both overtime and the shootout. It was a great soccer game. The kids really hung together and got us a crucial victory over a great team.”
Playing against a 20-m.p.h. wind, the Aztecs played SMU to a scoreless first half. SMU dominated the first 45 minutes, outshooting San Diego State, 12-3. But the Mustangs’ only real scoring threat failed when McLaughlin’s header bounced off the right post.
With the wind at its back, San Diego State outshot SMU, 9-4, in the second half and took a 1-0 lead at the 32:31 mark when Taylor scored on a right-footed shot with an assist from Lewis.
SMU then rallied for two goals to take a 2-1 lead into the final three minutes. The Mustangs got the 1-1 tie with 11:13 remaining on McPhail’s header goal. SMU then took the lead with 5:57 left when Graham scored on a left-footer after taking a crossing pass from Agnew.
Neither team had any good scoring chances in the two 10-minute overtimes.
