Seattle Pacific Ousts Northridge From Division II Soccer Playoffs

Without ever leaving its home field, the Cal State Northridge soccer team on Saturday took a journey through the past.

It was only a year ago at North Campus Stadium that the Seattle Pacific Falcons knocked the Matadors out of the NCAA Division II championship tournament in a quarterfinal game.

The Falcons went ahead, watched as CSUN caught up, and with little time left, pushed through the winning goal.

Seattle Pacific went on to win the national championship. CSUN went on to basketball.

Saturday’s quarterfinal against Seattle Pacific was hauntingly familiar for the Matadors.

CSUN, 15-3-2 and ranked No. 1, lost, 2-1, putting Seattle Pacific (15-4-2) in good shape to become the first team ever to win back-to-back Division II soccer titles.

The Falcons, who were ranked seventh, scored first--Danny Machado fired past CSUN keeper Mike Caputo at the 26:18 mark.

Although CSUN outshot the Falcons, 10-2, in the first half, the Matadors went to the locker room at halftime trailing, 1-0.

At 49:36, though, CSUN forward Joey Kirk faked right and shot left on a penalty kick.

The fake sent Falcon goalie Jeff Storrs to one side of the net, and the shot hit the other side, tying the game at one.

With less than 10 minutes left in the game, Seattle Pacific’s Mark Faller, who led the Falcons this season with 12 goals, took a pass from Glenn Lurie and worked his way through traffic to score the winning goal.

Last season, Seattle Pacific scored a late goal to break a 2-2 tie to eliminate CSUN from the postseason tournament.

“It was just like last year,” said Mike McAndrew, CSUN’s team co-captain and all-time assist leader. McAndrew is a senior who has now played in three straight NCAA tournaments but hasn’t been past the second round.

“The same thing. It was my last chance. What can you do? I feel we outplayed the other team and outchanced the other team. It’s like deja vu. A little too much deja vu.”

Co-captain forward John Tronson, who was denied a school career scoring record by being shutout Saturday, missed several shots on goal. As he was consoled by a few of the 2,696 fans, he reflected on the loss.

“It seems that if I shot one way, I just missed,” said a teary-eyed Tronson. “And if I tried another way, their goalie would catch it.”

Seattle Pacific Coach Cliff McCrath, the winningest coach in college soccer, liked the odds going in against the top-ranked team.

“I was hoping they’d be undefeated, unscored upon, untied,” McCrath said. “And then we would come in here, their place--they haven’t been beaten here since the Chicago fire--and beat them.”

It was only CSUN’s third loss in its last 30 games at North Campus Stadium.

Seattle Pacific will play the winner of today’s Bridgeport-Southern Connecticut game on Saturday.