Photos: Cal Poly wins exhibition over Fresno Pacific 4-0

Chase Minter drilled home a penalty kick for the first goal on Saturday night. By Owen Main

Exhibition soccer matches can have widely varied levels of intensity. On Saturday night at Alex G. Spanos Stadium, Fresno Pacific and Cal Poly had no such issues. An intense exhibition led to a first-half red card against Fresno Pacific, a Cal Poly penalty kick, and numerous other fouls and cards.

Fresno Pacific used physicality to out-play the Mustangs for a good portion of the first half. They had the majority of possession in the first 20-30 minutes. Against the very early run of play, Cal Poly broke through with a Chase Minter penalty-kick goal in the 10th minute.

Cal Poly finally broke the game open in the second half. Up a man from the 33rd minute on, Joseph Bolous took a mini-cross from a controlled Kip Colvey and calmly slotted it past the Fresno Pacific keeper in the 74th minute.

Colvey assisted on the Mustangs’ third goal just seven minutes later. This time, it was Matt LaGrassa who put the ball in the old onion bag.

Forward Ron Reznichky scored the final goal of the game in the 90th minute. Steve Sampson explains below why it was kind of a big deal.

For Cal Poly’s soccer team at large this season, the jury is still out. Even with a great start to the season, I think the jury will continue to be out. The past two seasons, Cal Poly has had a solid start to the year, only to fall out of contention toward the end. If that was a result of predictability in style, I think the Mustangs won’t have that issue moving forward.

An attractive style of soccer still seems important, but it’s not the MOST important thing to the Sampson-led team. Cal Poly played most of the match with 3-4 attackers who seemed to interchange and a back-four that was well-supported by central midfielders.

Maybe the ability to play effectively in multiple ways will be a difference-maker for this team this season.

Photos by Owen Main

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