Box Score    |    VIDEO: Coach Mark  Collings

SEATTLE – A near-perfect season ended in the most imperfect of fashions for Seattle Pacific on Saturday night.
 
After going in front in their NCAA Division II men's soccer West Region semifinal, the Falcons were first reduced to 10 men, then tied, 1-1, and finally eliminated in a penalty kick shootout, 3-2, by Cal State Dominguez Hills in a steady rain at Interbay Stadium.
 
Dominguez goalkeeper Chase Gentry made nine saves in regulation and overtime, plus another two in the tiebreaker, as the third-seeded Toros converted three penalties. Gentry's foot-save off Davis Karaica in the fifth round was followed by the clincher from Jaime Rios for a 3-2 edge.
 
Matt Merchant had come off the bench to score the SPU opener that was canceled out by a second-half Tony Alfaro penalty. Two 10-minute, sudden-death overtime periods ended scoreless.


 
"Give credit to Dominguez, they capitalized on probably the one mistake we made all night," SPU coach Mark Collings said. "Unfortunately that mistake ended up being a big one, but even after going down a man we still really had a good chunk of the game.
 
"They took their chances and finished the one they got, and they were a little better at penalty kicks than we were. They are moving on and our season is over."
 
The Toros are now 15-2-4 and face the region's top seed, Cal Poly Pomona, next weekend in Pomona. The Broncos beat Cal State L.A., 1-0, in the other West semifinal.
 
Seventh-ranked Seattle Pacific won its second straight GNAC championship and finished with a single loss--the fewest in the program's 48 years -- at 14-1-4.
 
Despite going a man down for the final 41 minutes of regulation and overtime, SPU created several opportunities to win the playoff outright. With 16 minutes left in regulation, off an indirect free kick in the box, Jordan Kollars' shot slammed off the base of the left post and rebounded off the underside of the crossbar.
 
With 12 seconds remaining in regulation, a wide-open Danny Olivas sent a 16-yard shot past the upper left corner.
 
The Falcons finished with a 23-17 advantage in shots and 7-2 in corner kicks. CSUDH played a physical brand of soccer, committing 29 fouls to just 11 for SPU.
 
"At the end of the day sometimes you have to win ugly," said Dominguez coach Joe Flanagan. "The weather doesn't allow us sometimes to play pretty soccer. We had to do some things just to get the win and that's what we did tonight."
 
Gabriel Rivera of Dominguez produced the closest chance to a golden goal in overtime, testing SPU keeper Cody Lang at the near post in the 99th minute.

 

Lang registered seven saves. The junior shot-stopper finished the season with nine shutouts and a 0.49 goals against average that ranks among the top-five in the nation.
 
"Cody did what he's done all year, that's to protect the goal as well as anybody. In penalties, he made two saves that were big time, but unfortunately we couldn't put more than two past their goalkeeper," said Collings.
 
"What can you say about Cody? He's a big-time goalkeeper and he showed tonight why he's the (GNAC) defensive player of the year."
 
Merchant's goal in the 37th minute had the hosts in control until a brief lapse in the 59th minute led to two fateful calls.
 
Defender Chad Jenkins, unable to cut off Pedro Velasquez's run into the box, was judged to have taken him down from behind. Jenkins was issued a red card and the Toros' Tony Alfaro scored on the resulting penalty. It was the first SPU ejection in two years.
 
"We got the PK and they got the red card too, so the game changes in many ways there," Flanagan said. "I still thought Seattle Pacific also played very well with 10 men. For us, we were just a little sloppy with our final pass at times. We could have done a little better with the man up."
 
The Falcons weathered some early pressure before finishing the first half strong. After Jordan Kollars' firm first-time shot went straight at Gentry in the fifth minute, the Toros responded with an assertive 15-minute stretch. Using their width to stretch the SPU defense, gaps inside allowed Gabriel Rivera and Pedro Velasquez good looks from the edge of the box. In the 10th minute Rivera shot well over the bar, but a Velasquez rising blast from 25 yards was much closer.
 
SPU began taking the game to the visitors after the half-hour mark. A scuffed goal kick came to the feet of Ian Adams, whose shot was parried out by Gentry. Another Toros turnover five minutes later produced the game's first goal.

 

MacDonald poked the ball from CSUDH defender Bryan Haley and burst into the left side of the box, drawing Gentry out. Calmly squaring the ball to his right, MacDonald made it a tap-in goal for Merchant, who had entered the match just 28 seconds earlier.
 
An injury limited MacDonald to just eight games this season. The junior forward led the team in 2014 with nine goals and eight assists.
 
"Not having him all year, we kept saying how much we were missing Stephen just because of plays like that where he really made something out of nothing," Collings said. "With just a little bit of work he gets ahold of the ball and draws a crowd. His maturity showed. His freshman year he maybe smashes that ball, instead he cut it back across to Merchant for a tap-in."
 
SPU applied further pressure after the goal, earning three corner kicks in a span of 1:40. The first was a result of Ian Adams' header forcing a save. The second corner was knocked down to Bryson Pavel, who nearly doubled the lead when his close-range try was cleared off the goal line by a defender.
 
Two minutes into the second half, Adams was it again, wriggling free to prompt a full-stretch stop from Gentry. Danny Olivas reached the rebound first and found the net but was judged offside.
 
It was the second time in four years the Falcons' season has ended in a shootout. In 2012, SPU was eliminated by Cal State L.A. via penalties.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S SOCCER
Division II Tournament – West Regional Semifinal
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Interbay Stadium / Seattle, Wash.
 
#7 Seattle Pacific 1, #23 Cal State Dominguez Hills 1 (2ot)
(CSUDH advances on penalty kicks, 3-2)
 
Scoring – 1, SPU, Matt Merchant (Stephen MacDonald) 36:03; 2, CSUDH, Tony Alfaro (penalty kick) 58:52.
 
Shootout:
SPU (2): Olivas (G), Adams (S), Jones (NG), Merchant (G), Karaica (S)
Goalkeeper: Cody Lang
CSUDH (3): Rocha (G), Vaca (S), Alfaro (G), Velasquez (S), Rios (G)
Goalkeeper: Chase Gentry
 
Shots – CSUDH 17, SPU 23
Saves – CSUDH (Chase Gentry) 9, SPU (Cody Lang) 7
Corner Kicks – CSUDH 2, SPU 7
Fouls – CSUDH 29, SPU 11
Offsides – CSUDH 3, SPU 2
 
Records
Cal State Dominguez Hills 15-2-4
Seattle Pacific 14-1-4