Sonoma State’s lone goal wasn’t enough to take down the strong visiting Seattle Pacific University Falcons Thursday afternoon at Seawolf field.  Senior Forward Alex Mejia led the way for the Falcons scoring the only two goals of the game.  The lone Seawolf goal came on a penalty kick from Sophomore midfielder Sean Rohane.  Sebastian Bernal-Santos had all four of his shots on goal but the Falcons Senior goalkeeper Lars Hellernan shut down the attempts. 

Sonoma State recently began its first soccer season in almost two years after their 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 Regarding the upcoming season, Head Men’s Soccer Coach Marcus Zeimer said, “This should be an interesting year because since Covid hit, no teams in the conference played for almost 22 months. We were able to train for 6-7 weeks last spring, which was great but we haven’t had a game for a real long time.” This will be Zeimer’s 30th season coaching for SSU according to SSU Athletics.

SPU started the scoring early with a goal by Senior forward Alex Mejia in the 3rd minute of play, who streaked up the left side of the field just in front of Seawolf defenders to knock it past Seawolf keeper Derik Engebretsen.  

In the first half it was all Falcons, while the Seawolves struggled to string together passes to create momentum. Bernal- Santos tried to make the most out of his opportunities by almost heading in the game tying goal, but his efforts fell short. He had three of his four shots on goal in the first half. 

“Keep the ball” was head coach Zeimer’s message to the team at halftime. “When we play calm and keep the ball and spread out then we’re dangerous.” 

 Mejia struck again early in the second half with a beautiful header up above a mosh pit of Seawolves and Falcons. After SSU went down two, Coach Zeimer’s messages finally resonated and they began to build momentum. After a harsh collision in the penalty box that left both players on the turf, a penalty kick was awarded to the Seawolves.  Rohane wasn’t going to miss his chance, so he planted it in the back of the net for the Seawolves’ first goal of the 2021 season.

 In the second half, Sophomore Evan Sadler, who had 2 of his 3 shots on goal coming in the second half, strung together some well balanced attacks on the SPU defense with Bernal-Santos by his side.  In the end, Hellernan held tough until the final whistle blew and ended the game with 9 saves to the Seawolves’ 2.  

“It really comes down to a game of moments, they had two moments, they stepped up and got it done, and we just couldn’t get the equalizer,” said SSU Head Coach Marcus Ziemer.

 Sonoma State had a tough preseason, with games against Division 1 program St. Mary’s as well as out of conference rival Holy Names.  “We played well for the first 35 minutes, but we were pretty thin in numbers because of injuries and lost our way a bit in the second half, but were still solid,” said Coach Ziemer on playing St. Marys.  

Ziemer is expecting contributions this season from a solid group of returning players such as Goalkeeper Engebretson, Midfielder Luis Diaz Mendoza, Forward Bernal Santos, Brian Field, Matt Walleigh, Timmy Phillips, and Rohane.  Sonoma also added Hawaii State Gatorade Player of the Year Johnnie Dodge, a midfielder, who is expected to have a big impact.  

The team goal is simple this year after the preseason polls came out and had the Seawolves finishing 5th this season in CCAAs: “Our goal is to earn a spot in the CCAA tournament and win the conference and then earn a spot in the NCAA’s.  This year is a little strange because nobody had a season last year, so it will be interesting to see how the season ends up.  I like our group and hopefully we can come together and win some games,” said Coach Ziemer on the goals for the upcoming season.