University of Delaware Athletics
University of Delaware
California
No. 11 Delaware Men's Soccer Suffers First Loss as Blue Hens Fall to No. 15 California 4-2
9/19/2014 11:11:00 PM | Men's Soccer
BERKELEY, Calif. – The University of Delaware's historic start to the season came to an end Friday as the Blue Hens could not overcome California's quick start and the Blue Hens fell 4-2.
Delaware (6-1) dug itself an early hole when the No. 15 Golden Bears scored two goals in the first five minutes of the game and never looked back in posting the win.
Christian Thierjung put Cal on the scoreboard at the 1:17 mark of the first half with his third goal of the season, but he was not done. Moments later, Thierjung tallied another goal to give the Golden Bears an early 2-0 lead.
Ian HennessyCal (4-1) added to its lead early in the second half. Connor Hallisey scored his fourth goal of the season to give the Golden Bears a commanding 3-0 lead.
The Blue Hens, however, would not go quietly. Tobias Muller put the Blue Hens on the board with his first goal of the season shortly after Hallisey's goal and gave UD some much-needed momentum..
That momentum, however, was quelled when Cal answered Muller's goal with Hallisey's team-leading fifth goal of the season at the 73:04 mark.
Despite the three-goal deficit, the Blue Hens did not give up. Muller notched his second goal of the game to cut the Cal lead to two, but that would be as close as Delaware would get.
“There was some excellent end-to-end stuff in this game. We were absolutely terrific at times and had the opportunity to score more, but we were always chasing the game after starting so poorly with such fundamental mistakes,” said Hennessy. “I was delighted with our response after conceding so early, really delighted with the spirit of our response and the great leadership from our captain Tobias Muller.”
UD outshot Cal by a count of 16-12 with Joe Dipre contributing a game-high three shots. However, both Dipre and leading scorer Guillermo Delgado were held without a goal, snapping a streak of four straight games with a goal for both players. Delgado contributed with two shots in the game while Ben Asante and Jaime Martinez each accounted for one assist.
Delaware will look to salvage a split out of its West Coast road trip as the Blue Hens head to Palo Alto, Calif. Sunday to take on No. 24 Stanford. The game is set to start at 4 p.m. at Cagan Stadium and can be seen live on the PAC 12 Network.
