The UC Davis men’s soccer team kicked off their season to a solid start last Saturday against Chico State. The Aggies tied Chico State 1-1 in double overtime in an exhibition match.
Sophomore Ramon Martin del Campo put away the Aggies’ only goal of the game while freshman Kris Schultz came up with three saves as the UC Davis men’s soccer team fought Chico State to a 1-1 draw on Saturday at Aggie Soccer Field.
The Wildcats struck first in the double overtime draw when Tyson Crim’s header off a cross from Micah Miranda found the upper left corner of the goal to give Chico State a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute.
In the 78th minute, the Wildcats almost scored the go-ahead goal, but freshman Kirk Kappelhoff came up with a huge save for UC Davis. Tyson Crim’s attempt was wide and cleared out by an Aggie defender.
As the first overtime period came to an end, Aguiar fired a shot from 25 yards out and nearly found the upper right corner, but the Chico State goalkeeper knocked it up and over the crossbar and out of play. On the corner kick, del Campo’s had a header that went high and the teams headed to a second overtime period.
Chico State was awarded a free kick in the 107th minute of action and were very close to getting the winning goal, but Schultz came out and tipped the ball over the crossbar to close out the 1-1 draw.
“Even though that game didn’t count,” said coach Dwayne Shaffer, “It was a fierce and exciting match to watch.”
The Aggies hosted a tremendous team, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, this past Friday and came away with a 1-0 victory. Sophomore Matt Sheldon set up junior captain Alex Aguiar to score in the 85th minute and break a scoreless draw.
UC Davis outshot UNLV by a 7-0 margin in the first half, but could not find the back of the net. Del Campo had a header attempt off of a long throw-in from freshman Ryan Gross, but the header was just wide of the goal.
UC Davis nearly had its first goal of the game in the 72nd minute. Junior Elliott Hord crossed a ball into the box and UNLV goalkeeper Joe Vitale came out to grab the cross, but mishandled the ball. Matt Sheldon made a pass back to Kevin Schulte who was waiting at the top of the six-yard box, but his shot on the ground was easily cleared away by a UNLV defender.
“Our players have been playing very well,” Shaffer said. “This was Schulte’s best performance of his college career.”
Aguiar’s goal finally came in the 85th minute after Sheldon passed a ball in to the junior team captain. Aguiar one-touched the shot into the lower left corner to send UC Davis to victory.
“I am very excited for the rest of the season,” said Shaffer. “We are off to a great start.”
UC Davis will travel to CSU Bakersfield for a matchup on Monday at 7 p.m.
VEENA BANSAL can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
