CLEVELAND – Santa Clara men's soccer and Cleveland State played to a 1-all draw in the 2025 season opener at Krenzler Field on Thursday night with both goals coming in the first 20 minutes of action.   
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: 

• Matteo Correia opened the scoring for Cleveland State (0-0-1) in the ninth minute, chipping in the ball from 20 yards out over goalkeeper Jackson Ozburn who came off his line.  Djordje Petrovic delivered a diagonal pass from midfield to Correia, walled off the Bronco defender and volley chipped it off the bounce into the empty net.  
• In the 20th minute, Santa Clara (0-0-1) leveled the match on Simon Diagana's first career goal when he skied in with a header from just outside the six yard box on a cross from freshman Ethan Martinez.  
• The Broncos outshot the Vikings 10-4 in the first half with four of those coming from Will Wiersdorf.
• The second half saw a total of five shots between the two teams with one on frame.  At the 79th minute, Tom Mertz's close range shot was on target but Ozburn easily saved it for his lone save of the game.    

NOTABLE NUMBERS / GAME NOTES: 

• Santa Clara leads the series 4-0-1.
• Broncos head coach Cam Rast is 12-10-2 in season openers.  
• Newcomers Martinez, Alejandro Arenas, Niv Berkovitz, and Diego Diaz were in the starting XI. 
• Moises Almontes, James Wangsness, Gabrielius Mazonas, James Saggau and Josmar Guandique also made their Bronco debuts, coming in as substitutes.   

POST-GAME COMMENTS:

Head Coach Cam Rast on his general thoughts on the game:
"I thought Cleveland State came out really pumped being at home and put a lot of pressure early on to make us work hard.  As we were trying to settle down, we didn't do a good job keeping track of one of their fastest player and leading returning goal scorer in Correia.  There was a miscommunication between Diego Diaz and Ozburn and because of it, Correia was able to poke it into the net.  We needed to be sharper there.  But the good thing is we fought back and battled as Simon scored a great goal.  It was classy and he headed it in on a good cross from Ethan.  The rest of the first half was ours as we had a couple of good looks and outshot them.  Cleveland State sat deep and we tried to open them up but we couldn't get the final touch.  We'll need to work on the attacking side when we get back and see if there's a way to turn more of these shots on goal into scores." 

NEXT UP:

• Santa Clara hosts UC Davis in the home opener on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. PT.  To purchase tickets, click here.   

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