Peart leads Aggies to tie
Dana Peart scored both Utah State goals in the women’s soccer matches against Gonzaga and Southern Utah last Friday and Sunday.
The Aggies lost to Gonzaga 2-1 and tied SUU 1-1 in their first home matches of the season.
Peart scored her second goal of the season against Southern Utah on Sunday afternoon. Charity Weston and Candice Clark both assisted on the goal as they combined to get an open shot for Peart.
“I still have that pit in my stomach that maybe there was something more we could’ve done,” Peart said.
The Aggies kept on the attack for the whole game, outshooting the Thunderbirds 27-11. The Thunderbirds, meanwhile, had six more fouls than the Aggies – as well as a seven-foul difference in the second half.
Two Thunderbirds also received yellow cards. Both incidents involved plays where Weston went for the ball.
The goal that tied the game was mishit by the Aggie defenders when they were trying to clear the ball.
Tara Olson pushed the ball past Utah State goalie Kelli Allred in the 68th minute, which ultimately sent the game into overtime.
In the two 10-minute overtime periods, the best scoring chance for the Ags came as time was winding down in the first period.
With 10 seconds left, the Aggies broke through the Thunderbirds defense with some nice dribbling. Weston broke free on the right wing and as the goalie came out to meet her, she fired a shot that hit the corner of the cross bar and the near post and bounced harmlessly away as the buzzer sounded.
The second overtime didn’t provide any better chances since the game ended in a tie.
Peart said the team played well together and there was nothing to be ashamed of since they are starting to play well, but that the tie that could’ve been a win didn’t sit well with her.
Cairns said there were a few things the Ags could’ve done better against SUU, namely attacking with the dribble instead of trying to pass all the time.
“We were trying to pass too much and going into overtime, we started to dribble more and that opened up some scoring chances,” Cairns said.
The official home opener against Gonzaga didn’t start out as well as the Aggies might have hoped. It took the Ags almost 40 minutes to come up with their first shot. Gonzaga had 14 by that time in the game.
“We needed to regroup and re-strategize [at the end of the first half],” Utah State Coach Heather Cairns said. “We were pretty lucky to not be down 3-0. It seemed like we were defending, defending, defending.”
The last 10 minutes of the half saw the Aggies start to get things together and their play carried over into the second half where the Ags out-shot the Zags 10-6. In the 72nd minute, Rachelle Dixon launched a free kick from 50 yards out to the far post where Peart snuck the ball into the corner before the goalie could take away the angle.
The game didn’t stay tied for long as the Zags struck back with a header off a scramble in the box to put them up 2-1.
The Aggies played hard for 110 minutes to earn the tie – a fact that wasn’t lost on Cairns. She said the Ags were solid for the whole game, which will open up practice time to be spent on tactics instead of playing hard and playing together as a team.
Besides being the first matches of the season, the Aggies were playing with six experienced players out of the 19 that saw playing time on Sunday.
Charlsie Harris, the top returning scorer, senior forward Chanel Weddle and junior defender Ashley Wilson are out with various injuries.
The Aggies next game will be Friday at 4 p.m., against UNLV at Bell Field.
-krn@cc.usu.edu