Comeback falls short for USU soccer team
It looked to be a possible upset in the making for the Utah State University women’s soccer team Wednesday afternoon.
But then the final minutes of the match came.
With 2:05 remaining in a tied game, University of Utah forward Katie Tate zipped the ball past the outstretched hands of Aggie goalkeeper Megan Mills to bag a 3-2 victory for the No. 25 ranked Utes.
USU Head Coach Jen Kennedy Croft was as surprised as anybody the Utes snagged one from the reach of the Aggies so late in the game since the Aggies had climbed out of a 2-0 deficit five minutes earlier.
“I really did think we would go into overtime,” she said. “There is no way Mills could get to that.”
Instead of being crushed with the loss to their in-state rival, Croft said the contest was a good measure of how well USU (6-3-2) will match up with Big West Conference teams.
“The exciting thing is that Utah has been ranked this year and are one of the top programs [in the country] and we played with them for 90 minutes,” she said.
Tate had another goal in the game off an assist from Ute midfielder Amber Brower 33 minutes into the first half to put Utah up 1-0.
Then, 42 seconds into the second half Brower, a Mountain Crest High School alumna, upped the Ute lead to 2-0 on a free kick from the top right side of the penalty box, splitting the ball through a host of Aggie defenders.
USU responded just a little more than six minutes later as Aggie defender Shaylee Hogge recorded her third assist of the season passing, a high airball to forward Chanel Blaquiere who headed in the goal.
With 7:03 remaining, USU evened up the score 2-2 as Megan Tanner drilled a free kick from 25 yards out over everybody’s head and directly into the back of the net, erupting the USU bench.
But it wouldn’t be enough when the clock was showing all zeroes.
“We tried to make a good comeback but we didn’t quite make it,” Mills said. “We never gave up the whole game.”
First year Ute Head Coach Rich Manning said because the girls from both teams knew each other from high school and Utah vs. USU is always a big rivalry, he expected the match to be as close as it was.
But he pointed out fatigue for Utah (6-1-2) may have been the biggest factor for such a tight game.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with the Utah State team or today’s game,” he said. “But our team in the past couple games has looked tired, and we still looked tired [Wednesday].”
Now, the Aggies will return home to focus on the most important part of the season – Big West Conference play. USU is currently third in the Big West, the highest it has ever been going into conference play.
Long Beach State University (2-6-2) will visit Bell Field for a 3 p.m. match Friday followed by the University of California Irvine (3-5) Sunday at noon.
“As soon as conference play starts, it’s big business,” Mills said. “It’s nice to get in it. I do get a little more excited [because] it starts to count a little more.”
-samhis@cc.usu.edu