In a matchup against familiar faces, the Wildcats defeated the Otters and two former teammates, Jacob Burnison and Sylas Sells on Friday night.
“At least two of the old Chico players were on that team. They transferred last year, so you know, we knew they wanted to win. They want to beat their old team, we didn’t want to let them win obviously and beat us on our own field,” said Peterson.
Midfielder Dane Peterson attempted the first shot on goal of the game, but the strike was saved by Otters’ goalie Jacob Aiona.
Both forward Xavier Elder and midfielder Michael Gray had quite a few good fights for possession of the ball against the Otters, and overall, the Wildcats managed to keep the ball on the Otter’s side of the field during the first half.
Within 15 minutes into the game, Otters defender Cameron Fisk made a completely unnecessary, aggressive foul on midfielder Jack Shane, bodyslamming Shane as he waited to receive the ball and knocking him to the ground.
After a large, loud tussle among players, the ref reviewed the play and decided to show a yellow card to Fisk, the first of many yellow cards to come.
After the call, the latest foul that happened in the box resulted in a penalty kick by Elder, who made a fast and straight shot for the Wildcats at the goal, but it was blocked by Aiona just beside the left goalpost.
21 minutes into the game, Otters’ forward Philip Wolny attempted a shot on goal from a good position, but his effort crossed the face of the goal and deflected wide off the goalpost.
Five minutes afterwards, midfielder Dominick Rollins scored the first goal for the Wildcats, with assistance from Shane.
“It was so crazy, I can barely remember. Jack Shane crossed it, and it was placed perfectly for my head. I just hit it into the bottom left corner and it went in,” Rollins proudly said.
A minute later, Sells received a yellow card after shoving and blocking a Wildcat with his arms.
At 43 minutes, defender Julian Lomeli attempted to shoot for a goal, but Wildcat goalie Weston Joyner easily caught the ball that flew straight for his face, and the first half of the game ended.
Within a minute into the second half, Otters’ Burnison was whistled for a foul and seconds later knocked Peterson over onto his face as he tried to defend the goal, resulting in Burnison’s third yellow card.
Just moments after the game resumed, in the 47th minute, Peterson scored the second goal for the Wildcats, Shane’s second assist of the game.
“That was amazing. Obviously, we were already up on zero, but putting another one in is amazing. And especially from what I know, it’s like a rivalry,” Peterson said.
At 23 minutes into the second half, the Wildcats received their first yellow card, shown to defender Caleb Gordon.
Moments later, Otters’ midfielder Olof Larsson attempted a shot from bottom center, but was saved by Joyner.
In the last 16 minutes of the game, Jack Dawson received the fourth and final yellow card after he made an unnecessary, aggressive shove, continuing the physical contest.
With 10 minutes left, Wolney finally made a goal for the Otters, assisted by Angad Bains and Sells, to make it a one-point game.
“I think the team showed a lot of effort, which is really good, but like our coach always tells us, he can’t coach effort. So I feel like we put ourselves in the horn, push each other with effort, mainly it’ll change our games, and we’re able to do better as a team because we all have skill,” said Rollins.
The Wildcats move to an overall 3-6-4 record, including 1-3-3 in conference, and are looking ahead to their next game at Hayward, California, against Cal State East Bay.
For information about all Chico State athletics or to keep up with the game live, visit the Wildcat home page, or watch through FloSports.
Malisse Busby can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
