LOS ANGELES – Cal State LA's men's soccer team took a walk on the wild side before securing a win in its California Collegiate Athletic Association opener.
 
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but needed a dramatic last-second save by goalkeeper Dan Arnoll before hanging on for a 4-3 victory Friday at Jesse Owens Track. Cal State LA (2-0-3, 1-0 CCAA) got goals from Femi Kaffo, Hakon Laugsand, Steven Eberle and Rigoberto Maciel in the win.
 
Arnoll came up big when it mattered most, diving to deflect a shot in the waning seconds by Cal State East Bay's Christian Gonzalez to preserve the win. The ball rolled out of play as time ran out.
 
The Golden Eagles took three-goal leads twice in the game, but Cal State East Bay (3-3, 0-1 CCAA) battled back and narrowly missed sending the game into overtime.
 
Cal State East Bay wound up with a 14-13 advantage in shots, while Cal State LA had a 5-2 edge in corner kicks. Arnoll made four saves, while Cal State East Bay goalkeeper Ariel Rosenmann made two saves.
 
Cal State LA scored three times in the first 21 minutes of the game. Kaffo notched his first goal of the season after a beautiful touch pass from Tim Klefisch. Kaffo was able to collect the pass and shoot it over Rosenmann just 7:27 into the game.
 
Laugsand made it 2-0 with his first goal of the season on a similar play. Samuel Croucher made the beautiful touch pass and Laugsand chipped it over the goalkeeper in the 11^th minute.
 
Eberle made it 3-0 when he converted a penalty kick for his third goal of the season and Cal State LA seemed to have the game in hand.
 
Cal State East Bay, though, made it 3-1 in the 30^th minute on a penalty kick goal by Gonzalez.
 
Maciel took the ball on a long run with Cal State LA coming on a 3-on-1 break before entering the box and knocked a shot inside the far post to make it 4-1 in the 70^th minute.
 
Cal State East Bay made things tense for the Golden Eagles with a pair of goals over a four-minute span. Kalvin Conley headed in a pass from Bryan Hernandez to make it 4-2 and Luis Lopez collected a deflection off a Cal State LA defenseman in the box and quickly shot to make it 4-3 in the 79^th minute.
 
Arnoll then finally nailed down the win for the Golden Eagles with his late-game heroics.
 
Cal State LA will return to action with a home game on Sunday against Stanislaus State at 11:30 a.m.