With 18 returning letter winners, including eight returning starters, the men’s soccer team was ranked No. 1 in the Summit League preseason poll. Yet the Pioneers kicked off their season with a loss to Charlotte followed by their only win of the season against CSU Bakersfield.

This past week, the Pioneers were home for two games, Friday against a 3-2 Bradley team and Sunday against San Diego State (then 3-3). The Pios finished the weekend with a tie against the Braves and a win over the Aztecs.

After a rough game on Friday, the team came into Sunday with mixed feelings. Head coach Bobby Muus witnessed the team go into the second half against Bradley and “play Bradley’s game.”
“We were trying to hold on for the win instead of just trying to play our game,” Muus said.

DU started off the game against the Aztecs strong with a header goal within the first six minutes. Zach Bolden crossed the ball into the box where Kyle Morlack headed the ball into the top right corner. The Pioneers continued to penetrate the Aztec goal, clearly in control in the first half of play.
Going into the second half, Muus had hoped his team would finish off the game with a second goal early in the half.

“What we said [at half] didn’t happen,” Muus said.
Denver let in a goal with less than 20 minutes left in the second half and allowed San Diego to tie it up.

With the score tied, the yellow cards started piling up. The Pioneers ammased three yellows, while the Aztecs received two. “I think we out-fouled the team for the first time in my ten years here,” Muus said. “But the guys continued to believe and continued to fight and I was proud of them.”
The second half came to an end with a tie 1-1, with the Aztecs creating multiple scoring attempts, including one that hit off the crossbar in the 24th minute.

The teams went into ten minutes of sudden-death overtime. Thirty seconds into overtime, transfer student and German native Kosta Kordistos scored a goal to win the game.

“I kept telling the guys that we will not lose this game under any circumstance,” Kordistos said. “And I was just lucky to be able to be the one to finish for us. I was just really excited for our team to get the win today, we really needed it to further motivation as we will see some tough opponents this weekend.”