A lackluster first half for the SF State men’s soccer team transformed into a driven and focused second half on Sunday, with the Gators fighting out a 3-2 win against visiting Humboldt State.

“The first half we were slow to get going, and that’s the curse of being at home sometimes, you get a little complacent so we learn from it,” coach Joe Hunter said.

The Lumberjacks (4-6, 1-4 CCAA) had the opening goal of the match with an unassisted score by freshman Zephyr Valverde followed up by 20 more Humboldt shots on goal before the end of the game.

With only four attempted goals in the first half to Humboldt’s seven the Gators (6-4, 3-3 CCAA) needed Senior Araia Berhane’s 52nd minute goal assisted by Casey Poston from the far corner. The score was Berhane’s first goal of the season and Poston’s first assist.

“I think we’ve been trying to find out where he’s (Poston) going to be most effective,” Hunter said. “I’m glad he awoke a little bit and I think now he’s kind of like the shark circling. We need that. We need points, we need goals, and we need assists from him.

“He’s a big body, and you can see they (Humboldt) had problems handling him. I’m very pleased with (Poston).”

The search may be over — Poston proved to be one of the strongest players in the match as he was never far from the action.

The Lumberjacks rallied with a second goal six minutes later by another freshman, Trel Mangarin, and forced SF State to make another comeback.

Senior Benno Nagel rose to the challenge during the 86th minute after a corner kick by Franco Cruz sent the ball to sophomore Kevin Gallette who set up Nagel for his first goal of the season. It was also the fist assist of the season for Gallette.

“It was an important goal,” Nagel said. “If we’d lost this game it really would have put us in a bad position, so it was important to get the goal.

“It wasn’t a pretty goal but they all count. I think it gave us a little momentum and really helped us out.”

Less than two minutes later the scales were tipped again to SF State’s favor with Dylan Glass’ creative play on the brilliant cross-field pass from Cruz put the Gator’s 3-2. The goal was Glass’ eighth of the season and put him one step closer to breaking the all-time record for most goals in a single season at SF State.

“We needed the points. This was a must-win basically because we’re already a few games back from Sonoma, so I think it was a huge goal and I was glad I could score it,” Glass. “I’m still a few away (from the record). I mean, obviously it’s not the first thing I think about because all I want is for the team to make the playoffs.

“But I mean, if I can break the record, that’s all good to me. I want to score as many as I can.”

The Gator’s junior goalkeeper Isreal Cisneros had several key plays in the goal box with nine saves during the game, including a shooting frenzy from the Lumberjacks with five attempts in ten minutes.

“There was just a little of everything at the end there,” Nagel said, “When you’re down, it’s late, you’re going to throw everything at it, throw guys forward and be pretty direct.”

“It was a huge, huge game because we came in after a tough loss against Sonoma,” Glass said.

The win kept SF State in third place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association North Division.

“We told the guys that while this was an impressive win for us, you play the game for two halves,” Hunter said, “We made some adjustments; we went to a two-striker front, we changed a couple of people in the midfield and that really made a difference.”