Brad Evans’ goal on a rebound of a shot by Lorne Howlett broke a
2-2 tie and lifted UC Irvine to a 3-2 Big West Conference men’s
soccer victory Tuesday night over host Cal State Fullerton.
The win improved the Anteaters’ record to 7-11-0 overall and 3-5-0
in the Big West while the Titans fell to 4-10-2 and 2-6-0.
Howlett blasted a shot off the chest of Titan goalkeeper Sam Reynolds
in the 54th minute and it caromed to Evans, all alone less than 10 yards
out.
Each team squandered a one-goal lead in a 2-2 first half. Ben Hofstetter
put Fullerton ahead in the fifth minute when he took a cross from Taylor
Sheldrick and beat Cameron Rossi to the far left post. UCI took the lead
with a pair of goals in a 3-minute span. Howlett rifled a shot over Reynolds
from about 35 yards at 31:40 and Kit Vitagliano took a feed from Howlett
to hit an unguarded net at 34:32.
But the Titans tied the match at 42:14 when Hofstetter ran down a looping
deflection of his shot off Rossi and chested the ball into an empty net.
Jose Barragan assisted.
UCI is now 5-0-4 against Fullerton over the past five seasons after the
Titans had run up an 8-0 record over UCI during the 1992 thru 1999 seasons.
Each team has two more Big West games to complete the season. UCI faces
UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge while the Titans play a pair
with Cal Poly, on Friday night in San Luis Obispo and Sunday at 4 p.m.
in Titan Stadium.
