Huskies Roll Past San Diego State, 1-0

Thursday, October 26

San Diego, Calif.

7:00 PM

University of Washington

11-6-1, 4-3-1Pac-12

San Diego State

5-10-0, 0-6-0Pac-12

Washington

San Diego State

October 26, 2017 | Men's Soccer

Box Score

SAN DIEGO --- Scott Menzies scored his team-best seventh goal of the season and Saif Kerawala made a pair of fantastic saves including one on a PK as Washington beat San Diego State 1-0 on Thursday night at the SDSU Sports Deck.

The Huskies pick up a big three points in the Pac-12 standings, moving a point clear of California for second place in the conference at 4-3-1 and improves to 11-5-1 overall. San Diego State remains winless in conference play at 0-6-0 and is 5-10-0 on the season.

While the final score indicated a close game, there match was not that close. Washington dominated play throughout much of the contest, holding a 16-4 shot advantage while limiting the Aztec to just two quality chances.

The Huskies were able to get on the board first in the 39th minute. Elijah Rice made a fantastic run down the right side, working his way through the SDSU defense and the goalkeeper before sending a cross into the box. Menzies then cleaned up, beating a defender to the spot and scoring the goal.

Just before the end of the half, San Diego State had its bestchance of the night as San Diego State was awarded a penalty kick with 25 seconds left. The Aztec's leading scorer Jeroen Meefout steped up to take the spot kick and sent the shot to the right corner. But Kerawala came up huge with a diving save to keep SDSU off the board.

It was the second time in the half Kerawala stopped Meefout. In the 16th minute, Meefout got a great pass and was 1-on-1 with Kerawala. But it was the UW metmninder who came up big, making the sliding stop.

Washington dominated possession in the second half but couldn't find a late insurance goal. In the 51st minute, Bwana split three defenders and attempted to chip it over the on-rushing netminder. only to send it just over the bar.

With three minutes left, a back pass by the Huskies nearly created a chance but Kerawala was able to sprawl out and keep the on-rushing SDSU attacker from getting to the ball. That was really the only thing close to a scoring chance by the Aztec in the second half.

Kerawala made two saves to record his sixth cleansheet of the season and shutting out San Diego State for the second time this year.

"You felt like the lead was comfortable through the first half, but then Saif has to make two great saves at the end of the half," Head Coach Jamie Clark said. "To do it without much action in between was great and especially coming back that way after sitting out the last match."

"It was a great goal for us and I felt like we had enough chances and opportunities," said Clark. "But credit to them. They came out and had a bend-but-don't-break plan and kept us from getting many point-blank chances and kept them in it for all 90 minutes."

The victory was the first for the Huskies when scoring fewer than two goals in match. Washington is 10-0-0 when scoring at least two goals this season and is now 1-5-1 when scoring one or fewer goals in a match.

Washington closes out its trip to Southern California with a huge Pac-12 match, taking on UCLA on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. The winner of the match will have the inside track on finishing in the top three in the conference.