By Kyle Trembley

In a game that played out like the undercard to tonight’s UFC Pay-Per-View, Cal State San Marcos men’s soccer outlasted conference rival Embry-Riddle to secure an important 5-2 victory.

CSUSM is now 9-3-2 on the year.  Embry-Riddle drops to 4-11.

Playing in front of a crowd of hundreds on homecoming, the two teams met in what was a big conference contest, and it was clear there was no love lost, as evidenced by the 14 combined cards the teams were issued.  CSUSM held the upper hand in the match, out-shooting Embry-Riddle and holding an 8-0 corner kick advantage.

But it was the Eagles who got on the board first.  Magi Manresa found himself alone in the box in the 10th minute, and finished to put the Cougars in an early hole.

CSUSM would quickly answer, as a Jake Kaiser corner was kicked around a bit before Max Blumenshine was able to poke it into the back of the net to tie things in the 17th minute.

Embry-Riddle would go right back ahead in the 25th, with Andrew Davidson beating Cougar keeper Kevin Ernst to a loose ball and tapping it home to put CSUSM right back down 2-1.

Later in the first half though, Blumenshine struck again with the equalizer, as he was played in by Sterling Peterson and expertly chipped his shot over the keeper and into net.

After a very eventful first half, CSUSM would come out and dominate the second.

It started in the 51st minute, when the keeper dragged down Captain Bradley Seidenglanz on a sure scoring chance, resulting in a penalty kick and red card to the Embry-Riddle keeper.  Jordan Shadeed converted to put his team up 3-2.

In the 63rd minute, a Dan Sims cross found Panos Kotselas, who headed it home to finally give CSUSM some breathing room at 4-2.

And in the 72nd minute, Andrew Podruski finished things off.  Peterson found him standing alone in the box, and Podruski blasted home his shot to make it a 5-2 game.

CSUSM will be back at home this Wednesday against Marymount at 1 p.m.