Broncos Find Winning Form

Men's soccer continues to stay hot after strong performances Tyler J. Scott THE SANTA CLARA September 26, 2013 [dropcap]C[/dropcap]oming on the heels of a shutout win in New Mexico, the Santa Clara men’s soccer team won their second game in a row after taking down the San Jose State University Spartans by a score of 1-0 on Thursday in San Jose. The win came behind the leg of sophomore forward James Huffer.Though it was a rivalry game for the Broncos, Head Coach Cameron Rast kept the players grounded.“Just making sure that the guys know that every year is a different year, so even though a year ago it didn’t go well for us, that it was important that this year we approach it not from a ‘get-‘em-back’ type of mentality, but from a mentality of here’s a game to go out and win and play well,” Rast said. “Playing away also makes it much tougher, and the fact that we know each other so well.”The Broncos defeated the struggling Spartans to improve to 2-4-0 on the season while the Spartans fell to 0-5-1.Santa Clara barely outshot the Spartans 10-9, with only two shots on goal compared to the Spartans’ three.With less than 25 minutes to play in the match, San Jose State’s Dylan West was ejected after being given a red card and San Jose State was forced to play the rest of the game with only 10 men on the field.However, Santa Clara’s Phillip Muscarella also received a red card ejection for a late tackle, leaving both teams to play with just 10 men.In the 84th minute of the game, Huffer scored the game’s only goal after receiving a centering pass from senior midfielder David Torres. Huffer used a redshirt season as a freshman last year, so this was his first career goal.“Coming off an injury last year ... is tough so it felt good, better than I thought it would,” Huffer said.The Broncos’ goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh had three saves in the game, two of them with five minutes remaining in the match, thwarting the Spartans’ efforts to tie or win the match.The game turned into a very physical match in which the Spartans had 16 fouls to the Broncos’ six. “The number of fouls that they had was largely due to the fact that the pace of the game was a little more than they were ready for,” Rast said. “They just ended up fouling us because they had to stop the play because we were coming after them so hard.”The Broncos also traveled to the University of California, Irvine and defeated the Anteaters, 2-1, on Sunday behind freshman midfielder Edson Cardona’s goal and assist.Despite being outshot 12-8, Santa Clara’s defense notched the win in the end. McIntosh had four saves in the game, upping his season total to 25 as of Sunday.The Anteaters scored first in the 21st minute when Bryan Breslin sent a lobbing pass to Lester Hayes III, who finished the play with a goal.However, Santa Clara responded right before halftime after Cardona’s shot from the top of the box found the back of the net in the 42nd minute.After a back-and-forth second half, senior midfielder Harrison Hanley scored the eventual game-winning goal, assisted by Cardona, to  give the Broncos the win that kept their winning streak alive.“We’ve changed our lineup a little bit, changed our formation a little bit,” Rast said. “It seems to be working for us a little bit better and we’re trying to refine that so we have a chance to win the big games and UC Irvine was a big game so that was a good win for us.”The Broncos are now riding a three-game winning streak and have a record of 3-4-0 while the Anteaters fall to 4-2-2.“Just being consistent is important,” Rast said. “Being able to win games in succession is important because you need to do that in conference and you’ll need to be able to play consistently well and well enough to win games.”The Broncos will end their September schedule against the University of California, Berkeley on Friday, Sept. 27 in Berkeley, Calif.Contact Tyler J. Scott at tscott@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.