Men’s soccer struggles at CSU
The men’s soccer team earned a pair of ties and a loss in a tournament hosted by Colorado State University this weekend.
The Aggies tied the University of Northern Colorado 2-2 in their first match Saturday morning. Goals came from Greg Larsen and Colby Jones for Utah State.
The Bears scored first early in the match on a 30-yard bomb that found the upper corner.
“It was the shot of his life, I’m sure,” Utah State captain Landon Potter said.
The Aggies answered with a goal from Larsen. After bringing the ball down the line, Utah State crossed a high ball into Larsen, whose volley nestled perfectly into the upper corner of the net.
Northern Colorado struck again from long range, this time on a free kick from 45 yards. Potter explained that it was deceiving because when the ball was struck, it seemed to really take off, but then it just died and fell in under the crossbar.
Finally, Jones was able to tie it up for Utah State late in the game. There was a scramble in the penalty area where the ball came out of the UNC goalie’s hands. Jones was in the right place to put away the loose ball and give Utah State the tie.
The Aggies reached the same 2-2 result in their next match against the University of Colorado Saturday afternoon.
Like the first game, Utah State fell into a 1-0 hole early. But the Aggies were able to battle back for the draw behind two goals from Herschel Hugie.
The Ags final match came against familiar in-state rival Weber State in a heated battle Sunday morning that resulted in the game being called five minutes early due to a scuffle.
The score was knotted at 3-3 in the closing minutes, two USU goals coming from Jones and the other from Potter when a WSU player was fouled in penalty area.
“After the foul,” Potter explained,” the [Weber State] guy came up swinging.”
As tempers continued to escalate, Potter further explained that the referee threatened the players with red-card ejections, though none were actually given.
Weber converted the ensuing penalty to give them the win and the game was called the by official.
Due to heavy rains on Saturday night, the tournament was cut short by its organizers. Teams were allowed to finish their group play, hence why Utah State was still able to play Weber the morning after the rain, but all other play was canceled. Therefore, no champion was decided.
There are no plans at this time to reschedule those games.
Even with two ties and a loss in the tournament, Potter saw that Utah State continued to improve with each game.
“We played better in every game,” Potter said. “Today was our best game against Weber.”
The Aggies will have a week to rest before they play a pair of road games this weekend. On Friday, they travel to Salt Lake to take on the University of Utah. Kick off is planed for 5:30 p.m. Then on Saturday, they will seek revenge on Weber State in a match at 2 p.m.
These are the Aggies’ final regular season games before traveling to St. George for the National Intramural-Recreational Sports (NIRSA) regional tournament scheduled for Oct. 21-22. Their performance at regionals will decide whether they qualify for the NIRSA national championship tournament held in Alabama in November.
– stm@cc.usu.edu