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The Cal men’s soccer team continued their hot streak on Sunday, scoring three goals in the second half to beat Oregon State, 4-0, at Edwards Stadium. Senior midfielder Chris Roner scored the first and last goals of the game. 

The win was the second straight for the Bears, who beat No. 4 Washington, 1-0, on Friday. Cal is now 8-5-1 overall and 2-2 in Pac-10 play, which puts them in a good position to lay claim to a spot in the NCAA postseason tournament, which has been expanded from 32 teams to 48 this season. 

“I feel like if we continue to play like this, we should be able to win some more games and find ourselves in the tournament,” Cal head coach Kevin Grimes said. 

Roner said the postseason is on all of the players’ minds as well. 

“Everybody really wants to make it,” he said. “This weekend should put us really close to getting there.” 

Roner scored the only goal of the first half off of a Mike Munoz corner kick. Midfielder Pat Fisher flicked the ball across the goal with his head right to the feet of Roner, who finished the easy opportunity. The Bears outshot the Beavers 10-0 in the first half as OSU resorted to hitting long balls out of the back to counter Cal’s attacks. 

Fisher got another assist on the second goal, which came in the 66th minute. Dribbling down the middle of the field, Fisher put a nice through ball for freshman Carl Acosta, who took two touches and slid the ball past Oregon State goalkeeper Peter Billmeyer for his first goal of his college career. 

The third goal was a stroke of luck for the Bears. Munoz, another freshman, put forward Austin Ripmaster through one-on-one with Billmeyer, but Ripmaster’s shot past the diving keeper was wide. Ripmaster lept over the prone Billmeyer and fell, and the referee called for a dubious penalty kick to the loud protests of the Beaver bench. Senior defender Leo Krupnik made the kick for a 3-0 lead. 

When asked whether Billmeyer had taken him down, Ripmaster responded with a smile. 

“Of course he did,” he said with a wink. 

Roner scored the final goal of the game in injury time, emerging from a tangle of players in the right corner with the ball. He dribbled along the baseline before sliding to hit a left-footed shot to the near post, somehow getting the ball past Billmeyer. 

Roner is one of just three seniors on a team that has eight freshmen seeing significant playing time. He said he doesn’t mind having such a young team in his final Cal season. 

“I think we have a good balance between us older guys and the young guys,” he said. “The definitely hold their own out there, and I just try to keep up.”