The Gators have clawed their way back to .500.

The SF State men’s soccer team is now 6-6-2 on the season after grinding out a victory over the CSU Monterey Bay Otters (1-7-4, 1-5-3 California Collegiate Athletic Association) 1-0 at Cox Stadium this afternoon.

Head coach Joe Hunter says he has known the Otters coach Artie Cairel for so long there are no surprises anymore when they play each other.

“Were not going to do anything to disguise what were going to do. It’s like playing a game against your brother; it’s whose better on the day,” said Hunter.

Today it was the Gators.

SF State reached the .500 mark for the first time since a loss to UC San Diego put them at 2-2 on the season. That loss began a four game losing streak, but after today the team has reversed its fortunes, winning four of the last five games with all the wins coming against CCAA opponents.

After being shutout on only four shots all game in Sunday’s loss the Gators exercised their offensive demons against the Otters out shooting them 14 to six.

The lone goal of the game came two minutes before halftime when Antonio Ugarte made a clever chip pass to Dylan Glass who one timed it right past the keeper for what turned out to be the game winning goal.

It was Glass’ fourth goal of the season and his third game-winning goal this season.

According to Glass, although the game ended one to nil the Gators could have easily won by two or three goals after missing two key scoring opportunities.

“Two shots went off the crossbar, we easily could have had a few more (goals),” said Glass.

The first Spencer Schwandt made a nice move to beat his defender and launched a rocket that narrowly missed, hitting the top post.

The other near goal happened in the 70th minute after an offensive scramble left freshman Killian Leduke in front of the net with no one around, but he kicked it too hard off the top post barely missing his first goal of the season.

The road only gets tougher as SF State hosts CSU San Marcos on Friday in a non-conference game.

The team hopes to get a couple of injured starters some rest in that game before Sunday’s big in-conference game against No. 11 Cal State L.A., according to sophomore Charles Conway.

“We’re all a little bit nicked up, but we got to fight through it. This next game we’re probably going get a lot of reserve players’ minutes to heal up some of our injuries to get us back together for Sunday's game,” said Conway.

The Gators host CSU San Marcos this Friday at Cox Stadium at 12:30 pm.