The Cougars men’s soccer team won in a thriller over Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros this past weekend to strengthen their bid to make the CCAA tournament.

Starting with the men’s team, the score would remain tied throughout the first half until the 52nd minute when the Cougars, Juan amilo Salazar, scored in the top left corner after the assist from Parker Hodges. Nearly a minute later, the Toros would bring the score back to a tie after Albert Carrillo found the back of the net. A few moments later, Raul Meza was given a red card, to put the Cougars down a man for the rest of the match.

The Cougars would regain the lead in the 60th minute after Jorge Martinez made a long pass to John Williamson past multiple defenders and with only the keeper remaining, his shot would bounce off the inside of the right post to the center of the net. In the 74th minute the Toros, Steven Espinoza, would tie it up once again to send the match to OT after scoring right in front of the keeper.

The first period of OT second consecutive victory against CSUDH. The Cougars keeper, Matt Escareno, would have career high 10 saves this match and Salazar would have his team leading sixth goal of the season tying former Cougar Louie Farfan for most goals scored in a season. CSUSM ends the regular season at 6-8-2 (44-2 CCAA) and will wait to see if their points per match average is enough to qualify for CCAA Tournament. u would remain scoreless after only three shots would be on goal with all of three of them being saved by each team’s respective keepers. The second period of OT would be short lived as the Cougars only needed six minutes to score after Jacob Johnston would score the Golden Goal off the assist from Brian Chung to end the match in the 106th minute.

This was the Cougars’ first-ever win at Toro Stadium and it was CSUSM’s second consecutive victory against CSUDH. The Cougars keeper, Matt Escareno, would have career high 10 saves this match and Salazar would have his team leading sixth goal of the season tying former Cougar Louie Farfan for most goals scored in a season. CSUSM ends the regular season at 6-8-2 (44-2 CCAA) and will wait to see if their points per match average is enough to qualify for CCAA Tournament.