Men’s soccer team scores 4 at tourney
Colby Jones scored four goals in three games as the Utah State men’s soccer team went 1-1-1 over the weekend in a 12-team tournament hosted by Utah Valley State College in Orem.
It was a long weekend for the Aggies, where, including the loss at BYU Thursday night, they played four games in three days.
Jones admitted that by the end of the week, the team was pretty exhausted and beat up.
“Four games in three days is enough to wear you out,” Jones said.
USU opened play Friday morning by defeating the UV Rangers, a club from Provo, 4-2. Jones found net three times while Kenny Reid also added to the score for Utah State.
It was a sense of relief for Jones to get on the score sheet since he’s been struggling to find the net this season, having several close opportunities go awry.
“[It] felt good to finally start knocking ’em in,” Jones said.
On his first goal, the Aggie striker received a well-played through ball that put him on the run at the Rangers’ defense. Jones touched the ball past two defenders and, with only the goalkeeper to beat, put in an easy touch.
His second goal came as he slammed a shot off the far post.
The third was one that Jones said he was proud of. He received the ball at midfield and began to carry uncontested toward the goal. The Rangers’ defense failed to close on him, so when Jones was 30 yards out, he ripped a shot inside the upper left corner of the goal to complete the hat trick.
Coach Vince Lamara was happy with the win, but admitted that it was a sloppy game.
Friday afternoon, the Aggies faced the Sun Devils of Arizona State and tied 1-1. Angel Cicero put Utah State on the board midway through the second half, which looked to be enough to win. But the Sun Devils scored the equalizer in the closing minutes of the contest.
Without their coach, who had to return to Logan for a wedding, USU crashed out of the tournament with a 4-2 loss to Club USA on Saturday morning.
In his absence, Lamara appointed Jones and Landon Potter to run the team in his stead.
“Being in a situation like that, you have to pay attention to what’s going on in all parts of the field,” Jones said of acting as a player-coach.
Potter had a different perspective.
“It wasn’t any different for me because I was out on the field,” Potter said. “But, for those doing the subs, I’m sure that was different.”
In addition to coaching, Jones also scored his fourth goal of the tournament.
With the Aggies already down a goal, Jones received the ball with a USA defender on him. He touched the ball around his marker, but it fell to another defender whose attempt to clear imprinted the ball on Jones’ abdomen. Jones recovered quickly and rifled home the equalizer.
As the game wore on, the play became increasingly physical, and Jones said it took Utah State out of their game.
“Soon we were more worried about the hard tackles [than playing well],” Jones said. “It’s frustrating because we didn’t play our best soccer at all.”
USA scored three more times while Reid added another for the Aggies. The loss was enough to knock USU out of the tournament.
Even though the team was pretty battered from the physical games, Potter was optimistic about the weekend because it gave them experience in a tournament setting and prepare them for the post season.
“It was good to get a feel for playing four games in a week,” he said.
The Aggies return to action in another tournament the weekend of Oct. 7 in Colorado.
-stm@cc.usu.edu