Rohnert Park, Calif. – The SF State women’s soccer team did not play their brand of ball and suffered a 2-0 loss to Sonoma for their first conference loss of the season.

“We lost to an ordinary team,” head coach Jack Hyde said. “They took their chances and we made it easy for them.”

The Gators held Sonoma for the first half, but gave up the two goals in the second half. Kayce Brawley scored both.

“We did not play well,” sweeper Morgan Davison said. “We did not play anywhere to our standards.”

Both goals came from Brawley when she was left unmarked in the center of the goal box.

“We lost our marks, didn’t support each other, didn’t talk, and didn’t listen,” Davison said.

The fall apart was not just one area the team struggled up and down the field.

“Three areas didn’t do their job,” Hyde said. “We can’t do that and win.”

The three areas were the offense, the midfielders, and the defense.

“I feel like we didn’t come out as hard as last weekend,” Courtney Hamchuk said. “We broke down in different positions.”

It was a breakdown of every section of the field,” she went on to say.

The team served two corners out-of-bounds and there was no innovation in the free kicks, they were just thrown up as jump balls, Hyde said. The midfielders did not win the air balls at the normal pace. They won about 40 percent, down from the usual 70, Hyde said.

“It’s tough because we could’ve done better,” Rachel Lauderdale said. “We’ve beat way better teams.”

A goal scored in the final minutes of the first half by Robin Bowman was pulled off the board because she was offside’s. Davison put the cleared ball right back to the offense and Bowman headed it in.

The referees did not make it any easier on the Gators, but Hyde would not blame the refs. Clean slide tackles, incidental contact, fouls on both teams, and out of bounds all over the field went against the Gators.

“It wasn’t one of out best referees, but we have to go with what they call,” Hamchuk said.”
Lauderdale made her usual amazing saves – diving left, diving right, charging the balls and punching it over the net.

The Gators will look to turn it around Sunday on the road against California Collegiate Athletic Association North Division foe Humboldt State at 11:30 a.m.

This was not the last clash between Sonoma and San Francisco this season, Sonoma will enter the Swamp Oct 26, the last CCAA game of the season.

“All hell better break loose on our part, we have to go crazy,” Davison said about their next showdown.