Oregon State
Cal Poly Slo
Beaver Seniors Go Out In Style
October 31, 1999 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 31, 1999
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State got a goal and two assists from Greg Howes and a pair of assists from J.P. Capodanno as the Beavers beat Cal Poly 6-2 in MPSF Mountain Division men's soccer Sunday afternoon. Howes and Capodanno were part of a senior class playing their final home game at Lorenz Field at Valley Stadium for OSU (5-11-0 overall, 1-5-0 MPSF Mountain).
Seniors Bryan Hill and Jake Smith each played a half in goal to combine for the win, and senior back Svein Groem was part of a Beaver defense that helped limit the Mustangs (3-10-3, 0-4-2) to just seven shots. Scott Tedder also had two goals for Oregon State and Ryan Smith a goal and an assist.
"That felt good," Groem said, to which Howes added, "To say the least ... when it's your last home game as a senior, you don't want to walk off with a loss."
After giving up an early goal, the Beavers led 3-1 by halftime and extended their lead to 6-1 with just under 15 minutes to play. That reversed trends that had seen OSU lose leads in a number of October games and fail to take advantage of good scoring chances.
"It was really nice to see the result from this team when we all combined to finish," OSU head coach Dana Taylor said. "I'd have been happy if it was 2-1 or 3-1 ... we came out fast in our last eight games or so and then gave up the game, today, I was excited by the fact that when we got scored on, we didn't give up. We worked hard to get back in the game. So many individuals put forth a tremendous effort, and I was so happy the seniors could go out this way."
OSU, which had lost 1-0 decisions in its last two games, fell behind when Cal Poly's John Cummins scored off an assist from Brian Lange in the fifth minute. But the Beavers tied it up in the seventh minute when Capodanno gave up a shot to pass the ball right to Howes, who scored from point-blank range.
"The first couple minutes, we weren't playing bad but they scored a great goal and we were own 1-0," Howes said. "It was like, 'Not this again.' Then J.P. took on a couple guys on and laid it to me, Tedder and Nick (Jensen) put together one of our best goals of the season, Tedder got on my free kick ..."
And the Beavers were rolling. Five different OSU players would score goals on the day, and four would record assists as Oregon State finished with a 22-7 edge in shots.
Oregon State went up 2-1 in the 37th minute as Jensen crossed the ball left to Tedder, who had his first shot stopped but got to the rebound and knocked it in. Tedder made it 3-1 in the 40th minute, again off a rebound after Howes' free kick was stopped by Mustang keeper Chad Day.
The Beavers picked right up again in the first 20 seconds of the second half, as Capodanno left the ball for Smith in the middle of the box and he drilled the shot past backup keeper Derek Moore to make it 4-1 in the 46th minute. Howes set up another goal in the 63rd minute, passing right to Jack Wheeler for a score inside the 6-yard box that made it 5-1, and the final Beaver goal scored in the 77th minute when Smith passed right to Justin Kirk at the top of the 6-yard box to set up Kirk's shot.
With his two assists, Capodanno moved into seventh place on OSU's list of career scoring leaders with 43 points and a tie for fifth place on the school's list of career assist leaders with 11. Howes gained sole possession of third place on the school's list of career assist leaders with 14 and moved onto a pair of OSU single-season lists, as his 19 points this fall are good for a tie for seventh place and his five assists are good for a tie for sixth place.
The six goals were a season-high for Oregon State, and were the Beavers' best single-game output since beating Cal-Santa Barbara 6-0 at home in the middle of last season.
The Mustangs stopped the Beavers' scoring run in the 78th minute as Cummins scored off an assist by Travis Cheshire.
OSU will finish its season next Sunday at Washington, with kickoff set for 1 p.m.
OREGON STATE 6, CAL POLY 2
Score by halves:
Cal Poly 1 1 - 2 Oregon State 3 3 - 6Scoring:
CPU-John Cummins (assist by Brian Lange), 4:17. OSU-Greg Howes (assist by J.P. Capodanno), 6:41. OSU-Scott Tedder (assist by Nick Jensen), 36:05. OSU-Scott Tedder (assist by Greg Howes), 39:41. OSU-Ryan Smith (assist by J.P. Capodanno), 45:18. OSU-Jack Wheeler (assist by Greg Howes), 62:59. OSU-Justin Kirk (assist by Ryan Smith), 76:50. CPU-John Cummins (assist by Travis Cheshire), 77:50.
Statistics:
SHOTS: Cal Poly 7, Oregon State 22. CORNER KICKS: Cal Poly 5, Oregon State 5. SAVES: Cal Poly 7, Oregon State 3. FOULS: Cal Poly 16, Oregon State 17.
