HAYWARD, Calif.—Senior Day and the final game of the 2015 season ended in heartbreaking fashion as Cal State L.A.'s Steven Eberle scored the go-ahead goal at 85:30 to cap off a 3-2 victory over Cal State East Bay.
The Pioneers jumped out to a 2-0 first-half lead, but were unable to hang on. With the loss, East Bay finished the season at 3-9 in the CCAA and 5-12 overall. The Golden Eagles are postseason-bound with a 8-3-1 record in the CCAA and 11-3-2 mark overall.
The positive vibes from the pregame festivities that celebrated the final home game for seniors
Adrian Topete,
Duke Driggs,
Chris Gaitan,
Michael Tieku, and
Kellen Crow carried over to the start of the game, as the Pioneers scored first on a
Jeremy Romero (5) header to make it 1-0 at 12:10. Gaitan played the ball to the right wing to
Marco Neves, who put a pass to Romero, who was in great position to finish off the goal. It was Gaitan's fourth assist of the year and Neves' first career assist.
Gaitan recorded his fifth assist of the season and second on the day when he centered another pass to
Michael Paiva, who made a nice put the ball in the top left corner with a brilliant shot to make it 2-0 at 27:02. It was Paiva's fifth goal of the season, tied with Romero for the team lead.
The two goal lead was short-lived, however, as the Golden Eagles' Marvin Iskra scored to cut the advantage to one at 34:16.
The Pioneers remained ahead 2-1 for the most of the second half, but CSULA's Joshua Cortez scored to tie the match at 81:46, and then Eberle scored the game winner less then four minutes later.
"The seniors and the team were ready to play today and it showed when we started the game. We scored two beautiful goals and are over-combination play was sharp. I'm proud of the seniors for their performance today and this year, said Head Coach
Andy Cumbo.
The Pioneers outshot the Golden Eagles 11-10 for the match. Six of the Pioneers' shots were on-goal compared with four for the Golden Eagles.
Romero had four of those shots to finish the season at 53, one shot behind the league leader, Matt Hurlow of Chico State. Driggs was just behind Romero with three shots.
