Club soccer team wins, loses big
It was a bipolar weekend for the Utah State men’s club soccer team.
The team opened their three-game weekend with a bang by demolishing Snow College 7-0 Friday night and shutting out the University of Utah 3-0 Saturday afternoon. They then fell to Colorado State 6-1 on Sunday.
“Two out of three is always good,” Jake Carlson said of the weekend.
In the match against Snow, seven different goal scorers contributed to the rout.
“It’s nice to see someone else score,” assistant coach Buddy Young said of having so many different goal scorers and none of them being Landon Potter, who had a team high of seven goals at the time.
Darin Christensen got the Aggies on the board in the 12th minute by getting on the end of a cross from Colby Jones. As the ball approached, Christensen actually missed the ball with his intended foot and ended up hitting it with the heel of his back foot. It was just enough to beat the Snow goalkeeper and get Christensen his first goal as an Aggie.
“It was awesome,” Christensen said of his goal. “I missed with my first foot but it was alright because I hit it in with my heel.”
In the 23rd minute, Landon Potter fed through a pass to Angel Cicero, who finished into the lower right corner.
“I’m glad that I finally scored,” Cicero said. “I hope it to be the first of many.”
Three minutes later, Morgan Taylor chipped the Snow goalkeeper from 30 yards out.
Greg Larsen found net in the 34th minute. Cicero dropped an easy pass to Larsen at the top of the penalty box. Larsen settled and then belted a rocket into the twine.
Just before halftime, Jeff Kelly added to the score. Kenny Reid headed down a corner that bounced off the ground and the frame of the goal. The ball fell to Kelly who punched home his first goal of the year with a flying side volley.
In the second half, Josh Mills scored in the 65th minute. Left alone at the top of the penalty area, Mills ripped a shot high into the net.
The Aggies got their seventh of the night when Danny Spillman capitalized on a scramble in the Badger box. In the midst of the confusion, Spillman volleyed in his first goal of the year.
The University of Utah brought a similar challenge since most of the Utah State team had not seen the Utes play because the club didn’t put a team together the last few years.
Potter scored twice in the first half while Christensen added a third late in the second to give the Aggies their second win in as many games.
USU opened the scoring in the 24th minute after a scramble in the Utah penalty box. Christensen ended up with the ball and laid a centering pass to Potter who hit a blast beyond the Utah goalkeeper’s reach.
Kenny Reid would later get around his mark and center the ball to Potter. After a moment of hesitation, Potter lightly put in his second goal of the afternoon.
“The first half [against Utah] was the best soccer we’ve played all year,” Lamara said.
“We possessed the ball, we controlled it – that was the objective of the game.”
Throughout the second half, Aggie goalkeeper Robby Nelson made several saves to keep the Utes off the board.
“Robby’s solid,” Lamara said of the USU goalie. “The thing I really like is that he’s starting to hang onto the ball.”
Lamara explained Nelson had a tendency before to simply push the ball away when making saves, but now he’s catching it and holding onto it.
“That’s what we need,” Lamara said. “We don’t need any rebound goals.”
In the 73rd minute, Utah State got their final goal on the day. Christensen beat the Utah offside trap and curled his shot around the oncoming goalie. In explaining his goal, Christensen brought some principles from the classroom.
“Simple physics,” Christensen said of his shot. “I put a little bit of spin on the ball and it curved around the goalie and into the side netting.”
The Aggies closed out the weekend and their home schedule with a loss given by the Rams.
In addition to the fatigue of playing three games in as many days, the Aggies were also missing four starting players due to religious commitments.
Colorado State scored three times in the first half. Utah State came close in the 20th minute when Johnny Carver took a strong free kick from 40 yards out that was tipped off the crossbar by the goalkeeper.
Late in the second, half Carver again had a look from 40 yards – this time in open play – which went in off the underside of the crossbar.
“Overall, this weekend I give us a B+,” Lamara said.
He also told his team to forget about the loss to CSU and to start preparing for their game against BYU on Thursday. That game will be held at BYU’s South Field in Provo. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
-stm@cc.usu.edu
Aggie Colby Jones has the ball blocked by Colorado State with a sliding kick Sunday at Tower Field. Utah State had a mixed homestand over the weekend, beating Snow College 7-0, but losing to CSU 6-1.