POMONA, Calif. – There are many rarities in sports, but two such occurrences were witnessed by fans at Kellogg Field on Saturday. In the Cal Poly Pomona men's soccer Senior Day match,
Christian Gonzalez Diaz posted a hat trick.
With his three goals on Saturday and his two goals on Friday, Gonzalez Diaz provided the Green and Gold with five goals in the final two games of the regular season. Coupled with his offensive prowess, the Broncos' squad won both games by a final score of 5-0, making for the largest goal tally in a two-game span since 2010.
Saturday's contest honored eight members of the Broncos' team who were playing their final regular season game in Green and Gold.
Fernando Pablo Quevedo,
Christian Gonzalez Diaz,
Michael Torres,
Kris Korich,
Elliott Bonde,
Aaron Macedo,
Alexander Turkson, and
Justyn Peeples donned their Bronco jerseys for their final regular season contest.
CPP finished the regular season with an overall mark of 11-2-3, complete with an 8-2-2 showing in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). The win secured the Broncos the number two seed and a first-round bye in the upcoming CCAA Tournament. The loss for the Seawolves was their sixth of the regular season. Their regular season tally was 10-6-2, complete with a 6-5-1 showing in conference play.
As has been the case in the last two games, the Broncos offense was relentless in their shot attempts. The first half saw the Green and Gold post 11 shots while the second had 12. They outshot the opposition 23-10.
The Broncos' first goal of the contest was also
Aaron Macedo's first goal of the season. With a solid performance from
Alexander Turkson and a long dribble towards the SSU net, just before running out of bounds Turkson flipped a pass backwards into the open feet of Macedo. The South Gate native then fired one into the bottom right hand corner of the net. That goal set the course for the entire game as it came in just the second minute.
Nine minutes later, in minute 11, Gonzalez Diaz would provide his team with his first goal of the contest. He received an assist from
Eshel Chardon on the shot as he crossed it from the left-hand side in front of the goal and Gonzalez Diaz was able to shoot it into the top right corner of the net and put the Broncos up 2-0. It was the ninth goal of the season for him.
Just under 20 minutes after the Green and Gold's second goal was scored, a massive offensive onslaught from the Broncos huddled a group around the SSU net. Despite his efforts to clear the ball, one of the visiting Seawolves kicked the ball into his own net and gave the Broncos their third goal of the match.
At halftime the score stood at 3-0 CPP, but the Broncos were far from done.
Gonzalez Diaz would score twice more in the contest. Just under 10 minutes back from the break, the senior received a pass from Turkson which he sent into the center of the net above the SSU keeper's hands. That was goal number 10 on the season.
With the game clock's final minute being counted down, just one more goal would make it into the Seawolves' net. An assist from Macedo in the middle of the field yet again made its way to Gonzalez Diaz who sent his 11th goal into the top right corner of the goal. That goal was scored with just 35 seconds to play.
The Broncos will play next on Friday in the 7 p.m. game at Kellog Field in the semifinal round of the CCAA Tournament. For more information on the Broncos' run and the CCAA Tournament go to
www.broncoathletics.com/ccaa.
