After an intense 90 minutes, Chico State men’s soccer came up short Friday night against the California State Los Angeles Golden Eagles with a final score of 0-1.

Both teams put up a strong fight not scoring at all in the first half. The Wildcats struggled to execute shots and did not make use of three corner kicks offered within a five minute time span. Forward Jeremiah Egujie’s absence on the field really shook up the performance of the team overall.

“It definitely affects us, he helps us a lot, he is strong on top, he is our goal scorer but I thought we still did pretty good,” Chico State midfielder Samuel Licona said.

At the beginning of the second half neither team was dominating possession. Cal State LA started playing rough and eventually received a yellow card. Then minutes after the penalty the Golden Eagles substituted two players due to injury.

The absences of key players on both teams caused the intensity of the game to rise, but then Golden Eagles forward Tim Klefisch broke through the defense and put CSU LA in the lead at minute 63.

“We kept them at Bay for a little bit, they just got a little lucky opportunity on the counter and got a nice finish,” Chico State defender Coby Cueva said.

After the goal it gave the Wildcats motivation, they became more physical and dominated possession. They did not stop until the last second with a very close shot attempt by the Wildcat’s #15 Eddie Zecena at minute 73. Unfortunately no shots were able to get through the defense in the remaining time. This left the team with a total of three shot attempts overall.

“It came down to one or two plays and today they got the one spot,” Coach Felipe Restrepo said.

This Sunday the Men’s Soccer team is looking for a comeback on their home field. They will play against the California State University Dominguez Hills Toros at 2 p.m. before they hit the road for the following week.

Lucero Del Rayo can be reached at [email protected] or @del_rayo98 on Twitter.