POMONA -- Down by a goal at halftime, the Cal Poly Pomona men's soccer team turned up the heat, and it proved vital as
Cyro Oliveira and
Eduardo Faria connected on goals in the 61st and 85th minutes, respectively, to defeat Cal State Monterey Bay, 2-1, on Senior Day at Kellogg Stadium on Sunday.
The Broncos (10-4-2 overall) secure a first-round bye in the CCAA Tournament in two weeks, rising to 9-1-1 in conference play. The Otters fall to 8-5-2 (3-5-2 CCAA).
CSUMB scored in the 17th minute to give the Otters an early 1-0 lead, despite the fact that CPP outshot the visitors, 9-5, in the half.
In the 51st minute, the Otters' Pedro Hernandez was issued a straight red card and CSUMB was forced to play with just 10 men for the final 39 minutes of the contest. Using it to their advantage, the Broncos dominated the rest of the afternoon, outshooting the Otters 19-3 in the final half of play.
In the 61st minute, Oliveira fired a shot from 25 yards out that bent around the goalkeeper and into the right side netting of the goal for the 1-1 tie.
Then, in the 85th minute came the game-winner from Faria, who rocketed a 10 yard shot from left to right, nearly hitting the same spot of the net that Oliveira's goal hit.
In the end, CPP outshot CSUMB 28-8.
Jordan Aldama made two saves while his counterpart, the Otters' Daniel Lomeli made 11 saves on the other end of the pitch.
Cal Poly Pomona will wrap up the regular season on Wednesday at Sonoma State. First kick is set for 12:30 pm. By way of clinching one of the top two seeds in the CCAA tournament, CPP won't play again until the conference semifinals on Nov. 15 at Triton Soccer Stadium in La Jolla.
