HAYWARD, Calif.---  In their 2011 regular season opener, it was the SF State Gators blanking the Dominican University Penguins (0-1) 2-0 this evening in the first game of the Cal State East Bay Fall Classic.  Antonio Ugarte started the scoring for the Gators as he connected on a breakaway off a ball from Steven Lujan in the 19th minute of the game. 

"If we have 17 more like this evening, I will be extremely happy," said SF State Head Coach Joe Hunter.  "This was our first rodeo and we played pretry good," added Hunter.  "There are some rough edges that we need to clean-up, but we did what we had to do to get the 'w'," said the Gator head coach.

Ugarte had a chance to put the Gators on the board in the first 30 seconds of the game, but his shot attempt was stopped by the Penguins' Casey Gibson.  SF State continued its on slaug as Lujan had two attempts that sailed past the net.  Then in the 19th minute, Ugarte connected on a ball from Lujan to give the Gators the early 1-0 lead.

Dominican's first attempt to tie the game was stopped by the Gators' Mike McNeill as he stopped Carl Fitzgerald's attempt in the 31st minute and send two teams into the half with a SF State 1-0 lead.

Fitzgerald had another attempt stopped go high in the 63rd minute.  The game remained 1-0 SF State until the 85th minute when Jose Vitela connected on his first collegiate goal off ball from Jose Monje.

The Gators (1-0) out shot the Penguins 11-6 including 8-4 in the first half and also had 9 corner kicks to their opponents' two. 

McNeill had two saves in goal for the Gators en route to his first shutout of the season.  Gibson also had two saves in goal for Dominican.

Mike McNeill Had Two Saves En Route To His First Shutout of the Season

 

SF State will return to the pitch this Saturday morning at 11:30am, when the Gators face Missouri-St. Louis in day two of the Cal State East Bay Fall Classic in Hayward, Calif.

Box Score

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