Cal Defeats UC Davis in Second Overtime, Ends 2007 Playoff Run

Coming into Saturday's first round playoff game against UC Berkeley, the UC Davis Men's soccer team knew it would be hard to net goals against the Bear defense. In 18 regular season games, Cal's defense surrendered only 11 opponent goals. If you're counting at home, that's a 0.6 goals allowed per game average. In comparison, the Aggie defense is a bit looser (surrendering an average of 2.5 goals per game).

With that said, the Aggie offense is nothing to scoff at either. If the Bear defense is Fort Knox, then consider the Aggie offense a crack team of thieves just itching to break in. Led by junior striker Quincy Amarikwa and attacking midfielder Dylan Curtis, the Aggie offense netted an average of 2.3 goals per game through the season.

Coming into the game, the 11-5-2 Bears were ranked 20th in the nation in the official Division 1 NSCAA/adidas poll. The 12-4-3 Aggies, who finished second in the vaunted Big West conference, were unranked. As the higher seed in the tournament, Cal hosted the game in Berkeley at Edwards Stadium.

Goals:

In a game that finished 2-1 in the second period of extended play, shots were plentiful but goals were few and far between. First blood was drawn mid-way through the first half as Cal senior Andrew Jacobson rocketed a shot past Aggie goalkeeper Ryan McCowan in the 33rd minute of play. Jacobson was set up about five yards outside the goal box with a pass from fellow senior Luke Sassano. Without missing a beat, Jacobson put a quick controlling touch on the ball and fired an undefended laserbeam into the netting, far post, past a diving McCowan.

After a number of ill-fated shots, the Aggies equalized in the second half on a header goal from super-athletic junior Quincy Amarikwa. The play was assisted by senior defender Paul Cain, who placed a perfect line-drive throw-in near the back post for Amarikwa.

Following a scoreless first overtime, Cal freshman Andrew Wiedeman scored the game-winning goal in the 102nd minute of the match (in the second period of extended play). The goal followed a bang-bang-bang succession of events. First, Luke Sassano planted a long throw-in the middle of the penalty box. Then a Cal offensive player headed an attempt at the UC Davis defense, which was deflected out to the far post. A waiting Wiedeman received the deflection and volleyed the ball home for the game-deciding goal. Sassano received his second assist of the game on the play.

Gameplay:

As anticipated, this game was a classic struggle between the superior defense of Cal and the ambitious offense of UC Davis. UC Davis registered more shots on goal (18) than did Cal (14), however, Cal keeper Stefan Frei did an excellent job of deflecting the attempts; Frei finished the game with seven saves. The Aggies also had a number of corner kick tries (eight to be exact), but Cal managed to keep them out of the netting on each of them.

While the opportunistic UC Davis offense had many fantastic chances on breakouts by Amarikwa and Curtis (as well as freshman midfielder Julian Godinez, sophomore forward Chris Leer and sophomore Paul Marcoux), the Bears were able to fend them off on all but the Amarikwa header. The Bears were a bit more methodical in their offensive approach. Cal depended mostly on counter-attacks (especially on Aggie corner kick attempts) and mid-field based play to mount their attacks. The Bears would often stall the movement of the ball to wait for outside mid-fielders to join the attack. However, striker Javier Ayala-Hil was a constant threat in the middle of the field whenever the Bears thought the Aggie defense was sleeping.

To use a basketball analogy, the Aggie offense was geared around a run-and-gun mentality while the Bears preferred to use more of a Princeton-style offense (with pacing and precision runs).

Despite strong play from holding midfielder Ahmad Hatifie of UC Davis, the Bears seemed to control possession of the mid-field. Senior Bear Andrew Jacobson was a big reason for that success. Meanwhile, the Aggies preferred to move the ball along the wings where mids Marcoux, Curtis and Ian Conklin were particularly effective.

In recognition of defense, Paul Cain of the Aggies was perhaps the most effective man on the field. Cain was like a park ranger, consistently stopping Bear attacks with excellently-timed traps and spot-on clears. The senior defender is a wizard with his headers; it's a shame that he will no longer be around to patrol the Aggie backfield.

Although the Aggie defense was effective for the most part, there were a few crucial lapses on the outside. The game-winning goal by Wiedeman was a perfect example of this; he was unguarded on the backdoor and capitalized with a neat volley. That backdoor was attacked quite often throughout the game by Cal and was often unattended by the Aggies.

All aspects considered, the game was a very hard-fought one. UC Davis created many scoring chances and the defense played hard-nosed; wiping out a number of hard challenges. As head coach Dwayne Shaffer of UC Davis said after the game, "I thought we played well enough to win the game; we created some chances, unfortunately we didn't put it in. Overall I'd say it must have been exciting for the fans to watch."

Speaking of the fans, UC Davis produced many supporters at Berkeley. The stated attendance of 3,479 included at least 1,000 Aggie fans (if not more). The Aggie Pack provided excellent support; loudly encouraging each UC Davis attack. Of the UC Davis supporters, Amarikwa said, "It is great to see that many people supporting our soccer team...it's the biggest game UC Davis has ever been a part of."

The Bears will move on to play 11th ranked Virginia Tech in the second round of the NCAA playoffs on Wednesday, November 28.