Late Scoring Surge Gives Oregon State a 4-1 Win Over UC Riverside
After a disappointing draw in their conference opener against San Diego, the Oregon State Men's Soccer team was ten minutes away from another tie against UC Riverside in Saturday night's match. A furious offense in the final minutes gave the Beavers three goals and a 4-1 win over the Highlanders. The Beavers are now 5-1-4 on the season, and 1-0-1 in Pac-12 play.
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The Beavers got their first goal of the night in the fourteenth minute. Near midfield, Jacob Zapien passed the ball to Gavin Wolff, who was able to launch a long pass to Wyatt Borso in front of the Highlander goal. Borso nailed a beautiful header, just arcing the ball inside of the right post, putting the Beavers up 1-0.
UC Riverside answered in the sixteenth minute. A corner kick from Ryan Guerra set up a play in front of the Beaver goal. Guerra's shot was blocked, but Brady Elliott corralled the ball and passed to Eric Martinez for a shot. Martinez's shot was deflected by Oregon State's John Koutelieris into the goal, tying the game 1-1.
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Both teams got chances to take the lead, but neither could find a goal before the end of the half. The second half brought another handful of chances for Oregon State to take the lead back, but the Beavers were never quite in sync enough to produce a goal. Passes were just off, shots were just high. The most frustrating moment came in the 70th minute, when Evan Carlock was just shy of picking up a pass in front of the Riverside goal which seemed like an excellent set up for a tip in.
With 10 minutes left in the game, the Beavers finally found their rhythm. In the 80th minute a passing sequence from John Koutelieris and Oliver Hernandez Parra got the ball to Michael Nesci. Nesci was surrounded by Highlander defenders, but it didn't matter. He launched a beautiful shot past Giancarlo Sagredo to put the Beavers up 2-1.
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Wyatt Borso put the game away for good in the 86th minute, after picking up a long pass from Tim Hoffman with plenty of room to work with on the right side of the field. He fired a shot that was just out of reach of a diving Sagredo, and the Beavers were up 3-1.
The fire wasn't quite out for the Highlanders, but the Beavers weren't done. In the final minute an Oregon State goal corner eventually got the ball to Milo Wray, who slipped it through the Riverside defense for the final goal of the night, and a 4-1 Beaver win.
Oregon State returns to action on Wednesday, October 7th, traveling down to Riverside to take on Cal Baptist. Kick off is set for 7 PM Pacific.
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Having grown up in Pocatello, home of the Idaho State Bengals, John Severs is a lifelong fan of small schools that don't always deliver a lot of wins. Prior to writing for On SI, John covered the Beavers for SB Nation's Oregon State blog Building the Dam, with a focus on baseball and women's basketball. When he's not watching college sports he spends most of his time reading, playing video games and annoying cats.