After its roughest opening half of the season, the UNLV men's soccer team nearly rallied from a multi-goal deficit while playing shorthanded but would come up short as San Diego State pulled out a 2-1 home victory over the Rebels in non-conference action Monday night from the SDSU SportsDeck. UNLV saw its record evened at 5-5 overall, while SDSU improved to 4-2-1 for the year.

UNLV was down a goal just 65 seconds after kickoff after the Aztecs converted a penalty kick. Less than four minutes later the Aztecs increased their lead to 2-0 thanks to a rocket blast from 25 yards out. With the Rebels offense struggling to find shots, they took another hit when John Lynam was hit with a red card in the 36th minute, leaving UNLV with just 10 players for the rest of the contest. Despite playing down a man, UNLV pushed the attack out of halftime, outshooting the Aztecs 6-4, including 5-1 on shots on goal. UNLV would close within one in the 77th minute thanks to Marco Gonzalez's seventh goal of the year, while a potential tying goal for UNLV was called off.

STAT OF THE GAME: UNLV did not have a shot on goal in the first half.

QUOTABLE: 
"Our guys showed great resiliency and passion with having to play 10 players, we got one goal back and had another disallowed. Unfortunately they had the advantage after the red card, but we played tough and made a battle out of it, and I'm just very proud of how we fought in the second half. Now we're ready for Friday's home match."
- UNLV Head Coach Rich Ryerson

REBEL NOTES: 
* Of UNLV's five losses this year, four have been by just one goal.
* The last two times UNLV played on the Aztecs home field, they came away with a 3-2 victory in 2015 and a shootout victory in the 2016 NCAA First Round.
* UNLV is just one win away from reaching 400 total victories in its 45 year-history.

NEXT FOR THE REBELS: UNLV plays their WAC home opener Friday at 7 pm against Cal Baptist. The game will have a live video stream available on the WAC Digital Network and UNLVRebels.com. Opening two hours before the game will be the Rebel Mafia Tailgate, open for free to everyone with a ticket. Tickets are just $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and staff, while tickets bought online at UNLVRebels.com at least three hours before the game will receive three dollars off. All kids 12 and under and Nevada students 17 and under are free to all UNLV soccer contests.