Two Menlo goals within the first four minutes doomed TMU Men's Soccer, who were knocked out of the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament in the semifinals with a 5-0 defeat to the Oaks in Costa Mesa on Thursday.
 
"I was disappointed with our start today and it made for a difficult game," Master's Head Coach Jim Rickard said. "Once we settled down, we played well at times, but just didn't give ourselves a real chance going down 2-0 that quickly."
 
Prince Chingancheke faked a shot with his right foot, cutting onto his left past a Menlo defender, and looked to dribble inward toward goal, but his angle was closed off.
 
After the Oaks scored their second, shots by Theo Kudlo and Aidan Rohde missed the target but seemed to give the Mustangs hope going forward. However, those were the only shots TMU mustered in the opening half, as Master's went into halftime trailing by two goals.
 
Kudlo had a decent free-kick opportunity from 25 yards out in the 57th minute, from a similar spot as to the one he scored against William Jessup on Oct. 28. Kudlo's effort forced an Oaks save, before Menlo scored a mere 40 seconds later to all but end a Mustang comeback bid.
 
The Oaks added insurance goals in the 76th and 84th minutes as TMU threw numbers forward.
 
Todd Giesbrecht appeared to get one back for Master's, but the goal was ruled out for offside. Kudlo forced another save before Paul Kopp headed an effort on goal that was also kept out. Jobany Estrada Mata narrowly missed a free kick of his own, but it just wasn't meant to be for the Mustangs on the day.
 
Master's finishes the season with an 8-8-1 overall record. TMU's 5-3 mark within the GSAC this season earned the Mustangs the second seed in the conference tournament, after Master's was picked to finish seventh in the GSAC Preseason Poll.
 
"Overall the team worked incredibly hard this season and had a solid conference finish," Rickard said. "We beat the other three teams left in the final four, which no one else did. But it is hard to beat good teams two times and that caught up to us at the worst time."
 
The future is bright for the Mustangs, as the team was relatively young this season and is expected to return the majority of its roster.
 
"We have to continue to improve and build the team depth and experience," Rickard said. "We were a relatively young team and hope to add to the depth and experience-level next season."