Recently in Guest Blogger: Jake Wright, Cal State Northridge Category

Goalkeeper Jake Wright, of Rancho Palos Verdes, will blog for 100 Percent Soccer this season providing an inside look at the Cal State Northridge men's soccer program. Wright was a two-year starter at Peninsula High and is entering his sophomore year at Cal State Northridge. This summer Wright played for Orange County Blue Star of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League.

In his second post Jake looks back on the first week of the college soccer season:

Coming into our first regular season game against Georgetown last Friday afternoon, it looked like from practices, and our scrimmage at Cal, that we were ready to go.

However, it turned out quite the opposite. With the searing valley heat beating down at kickoff, it seemed as if things were looking up for us as we had a few good looks at goal within a few minutes.

But, the momentum quickly changed in favor of Georgetown via a fluke goal. A quick turnover in our back line led to a quick chipped ball over the top towards a Georgetown forward. As our keeper Kevin Guppy came out to get it, it took a bad bounce off his chest right into the back of the Georgetown forward and into the goal.

It seemed as if there really wasn't any energy on the field after the goal although right after half time, our best chance of the match came from a great through ball that resulted in a 1v1 breakaway for our central midfielder Milan Radovic. Unfortunately, the keeper came up with a huge save to keep the score 1-0. Despite out shooting the Hoyas 8-1, we suffered our first loss of the season.

Not only did we lose a tough game, but we lost two great players to injury in the first half. Both senior Devin Deldo and sophomore Rafael Garcia went down with knee injuries and were on crutches by the end of full time; a huge loss for us and both are doubtful for the two games this weekend.

As most sports fans know though, it's how you respond to a rough game that defines a team, and that is exactly what we did Sunday against Alabama A&M.

We came out with a lot more energy and dominated play right from the get go. Senior Ben Cox found the back of the net just before half time and junior Sung Kim put the game away in the 70th min. A great effort by the whole team gave us our first win of the season to put us 1-1-0 on the year.

Hopefully we can get the job done this weekend also as we take on Cal State Bakersfield on Friday night at Titan Stadium at Cal State Fullerton, and then on Sunday afternoon we meet UNLV.

Go Matadors!

Goalkeeper Jake Wright, of Rancho Palos Verdes, will blog for 100 Percent Soccer this season providing an inside look at the Cal State Northridge men's soccer program. Wright was a two-year starter at Peninsula High and is entering his sophomore year at Cal State Northridge. This summer Wright played for Orange County Blue Star of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League.

This is his his first post.

After a rigorous preseason camp of intense fitness conditioning and two weeks of grueling double days in the searing valley heat, our boys were really excited to see what all our hard work was going to show for in our exhibition match last Saturday up at Cal.

Following our morning practice Friday, we headed up I-5 on our seven hour bus trip up to San Francisco. After a few movies on the bus, we finally got to the hotel. It was awesome, right on the water at the Berkeley marina. Later that night after a quick meeting, it was off to, what I think, was the best meal I've had on a road trip since I've been playing for Northridge: pasta, bread, chicken, salad - just awesome.

Soon after dinner was over, a couple of us went for a quick dip in the jacuzzi and then went up to our rooms to check out the gold medal soccer game from Beijing, between Argentina and Nigeria, then dozed off and got some rest before game day.

The first ten or fifteen minutes were very back and forth, with both teams trying to find a rhythm. A few close attempts, including a great save from the Cal goalkeeper, as well as a great save off the line from our goalkeeper Kevin Guppy, were the highlight of the beginning of the match. Our closest chance of the first half came off of a great ball from senior forward Devin Deldo, right in stride to Cameron Sims, who missed by just inches in his first touch of the game after coming on only seconds earlier.

After the half time break, we definitely came out hungry. With a tighter back line and better possession play, we were really moving the ball around well, but just couldn't put one in the back of the net.

At the end of full time, and the conclusion of the first overtime, we knew it was coming. Just three minutes into the second extra time period, after a great buildup from the back line, a quick turn and shot from Moy Gomez secured our first victory of the season.

We were all ecstatic, knowing that all of our hard work the weeks prior had paid off, but still knowing that there lots of areas of our game that still needed work if we wanted to achieve our ultimate goal of bringing a National Championship back to the Ridge.

It was good to see Chad Borak back after his season ending injury last year, as well as great play from the rest of our back line, midfielders, and forwards as well. Hopefully we can keep our momentum going into this weekend for our Friday night game against Georgetown, and Sunday afternoon match against Alabama A&M.

One thing is for sure, come Friday night, we'll be ready to go, in our first step in achieving that goal of a Big West and National Championship.

Go Matadors!