Fresh off a torturous schedule, which began with a road trip down to Southern California last week and ended with a three-game home stand starting last Wednesday, the SF State men’s soccer team is playing some of its best soccer of the season.

Despite heavy legs from a stretch that included five games in nine days, the Gators have been able to reel off a 5-1-1 record in their last seven matches, capped off by grinding out a scoreless tie with the No. 4 team in the nation, Cal State L.A. on Sunday.

Getting the tie against some of the best teams in the league is not something the young Gators were able to do early in the season, assistant coach Kelley Coffey said.

“We’re figuring out how to grind out wins and get results, and that’s maturation. Early in the year we lose that game,” Coffey said.

With two wins and a tie, SF State remains unbeaten on the three-game home stand, earning seven points in the standings a lofty feat considering the Gators only had six points going into the week.

The purple and gold is now above .500 on the season at 7-6-2 overall including 4-2-2 at home.

The Gator defense has been stingy of late, allowing only one goal in the home stand and three goals in the past five games.

Part of it has to do with the adjustment Hunter made by moving midfielder Wes Whitt back to defender to help solidify the back line. The other part is keeper Israel Cisneros’ phenomenal play in goal, earning two shut outs last week.

“Our defense has been playing amazing. We just shut down L.A. — one of the highest scoring teams in the league. Also, with Wes moving to the back we have more leadership and he is able to put out any fires,” Dylan Glass said.

The Gators kicked off the home stand on Wednesday by showcasing the suffocating defense as they held CSU Monterey Bay (1-9-4, 1-6-3 California Collegiate Athletic Association) to only six shots and got the shutout.

In the 42nd minute, Glass struck for his fourth goal of the season after one-timing a clever chip pass from freshman Antonio Ugarte by the Otters’ keeper for what turned out to be the game-winning goal. It was Glass’ third game-winning goal on the season.

For Friday’s game against CSU San Marcos, Hunter decided to rest the weary starters in the non-conference match and started six reserves. The reserves came through for about 25 minutes actually playing better than the starters, according to Hunter.

The first three minutes of the game was all it took for the reserves to flash their talent as freshman Killian Leduke sharply headed a cross from Mario Hernandez for his first goal of his career.

Although they allowed a soft goal five minutes later, the starters came into the game in the second half and put CSU San Marcos away. The Gators got a goal on a penalty kick, and smoldered the Cougar offense for the 2-1 victory.

But the reserves let Hunter know they can play at this level, too.

“I think our record doesn’t show the talent we have on this team and the depth,” Leduke said. “We all worked hard and got the job done.”

The finale against No. 4 Cal State L.A. saw the SF State defense and Cisneros contain the Golden Eagles’ offense in the first half. In the second half L.A. sat back hoping to capitalize on a mistake by the young Gators, but that never came as they battled to a scoreless tie.

“As far as our team growth, it has been good. Coach set the goal for us that we need to improve every game and that’s what we have been doing. But there are two very important games coming up this weekend, so we just need to stay focused,” Glass said.

The only pitfall of the weekend came after Cisneros was coaxed into a red card after a Golden Eagle player got into his face. After what appeared to be a head butt by Cisneros, the Eagle player fell dramatically.

As a result Cisneros will be suspended for Friday’s game.

The Gators go back on the road to Turlock to face Cal State Stanislaus on Friday at 12:30 p.m. SF State took the first game against Cal State Stanislaus 2-1 at Cox Stadium on Sept. 28th.