BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — The Cal State Monterey Bay men's soccer team peppered the goal with shots Friday afternoon but couldn't translate that effort to victory as San Francisco State handed the Otters a 3–1 setback at Cox Stadium.

CSUMB's 16 shots tied its season high from the opener at Fresno Pacific. Its seven shots on goal were the second most of the season.

SFSU scored the first two times it put the ball on frame to grab a 2–0 lead before the clock reached 14 minutes. Edgar Villagrana opened the scoring in the fifth minute, slipping behind the Otter defense to beat freshman goalkeeper Evan Drake one–v–one. Less than 10 minutes later, Jason Borges flicked a Jairo Magaña through ball home to provide what proved to be the deciding score.

“We dug ourselves a hole early. In this conference you can't come out flat,” said CSUMB Head Coach Rob Cummings. “In the second half, however, we played much better, spending the majority of the time on S.F. State's side, but we couldn't finish.

“In the game we created more chances. The difference is that they capitalized on our miscues. It's another chance to learn.”

After falling behind by two, the Otters took the play to SFSU, out–shooting the Gators 6–1 as a build up to Saydou Kamara's (Monrovia, Liberia/Cathedral Catholic) first collegiate goal. Kamara found the back of the net by pouncing on a 24th minute turnover in the Gator box.

But the Gators sealed the win against the run of play eight minutes later when Sam Merritt cleaned up his own rebound for a 3–1 lead.

CSUMB finished the first half with 13 shots. While they owned a territorial advantage in the second half, they couldn't unlock a packed Gator defense over the final 45 minutes and finished with three shots in the period.

The Otters will look to bounce back into the win column Sunday when they head to Hayward to take on Cal State East Bay at 2 p.m. CSUMB returns to the Otter Sports Complex for its final games of 2012 Oct. 26 and Oct. 28 against Cal State San Bernardino and UC San Diego.