Struggling Aggie soccer wins big at home over UVSC
It was a day of firsts and 223rds as the Utah State soccer team (2-4) won its second game of the season beating Utah Valley State 4-0 at Bell Field in Logan.
In her first minutes of collegiate play, freshman Lindsay Lauro, despite suffering what she said she believed was a broken toe, scored a goal off a Chanel Blaquiere pass to put the Ags up 1-0 against the Wolverines.
“Coach [Heather Cairns] just came over and said to play my game,” Lauro said. “She just got me pumped. I went in and did my best. It was all I could do.”
“That goal was the key,” Cairns said. “That broke the game for us. The longer the game’s at 0-0 the more uncertainty there is. Putting the first goal away certainly gave us some oomph.”
Less than three minutes later, Lauro headed in her second goal of the afternoon
“[Lauro’s] been tearing it up at practice,” Cairns said. “She’s been phenomenal. This was the first time we got her in and she proved something today.”
Recording three saves in the first half, USU senior goalie Megan Mills moved past Mackenzie Hyer for the most career-saves at Utah State. Mills finished the game with the four-save shutout. She currently has 223 saves.
“I didn’t know I was going to break a record today,” Mills said. “That was pretty exciting. I didn’t know until they announced it at half time.”
“[Megan’s] been a staple for four years here,” Cairns said. “It’s nice to be able to get that recognition.”
Senior Nichole Gooch scored her first goal of the season for the Aggies, giving USU a 3-0 advantage to close out the first half.
“That’s always good, especially as a striker,” Cairns said. “She was nursing some injuries at the beginning of the year and I think she’s finally hitting that full stride.”
A tough USU defense prevented any possibilities of an Aggie meltdown and highlighted the second half of play.
“It’s good to know that one of our goals coming into the second half was to keep the shutout,” Mills said. “So to have our defenders out there working that hard just kind of pushed the rest of the team.”
In the 80th minute, freshman Dana Peart scored the first goal of her career and put the Ags up 4-0. Cairns said she was pleased with the performance of the team’s newcomers.
“It’s neat to be able to throw someone else in there that just does things a little bit different than the person marking earlier,” Cairns said.
Lauro said she thought Saturday’s performance would be a confidence boost for the young squad.
“I totally think it’s going to give us confidence,” Lauro said. “I think we’re all just so nervous, but things are starting to settle down and we’re all starting to play like we know how to play.”
For USU, the win was its second of the season. The team is undefeated at home, outscoring opponents 8-0, but has yet to record a win on the road.
“We do tend to have a little bit of an edge at home,” Cairns said. “We’d love to have all our games at home, but that’s just not how it is.”
The team will travel to Nevada on Friday to take on the Wolfpack, before moving on to a match up with Sacramento State on Sunday.
“We love the home crowd,” Mills said. “All our friends and our families are here. We seem to pick it up a lot. We just need to bottle this and take it on the road with us.”
– acf@cc.usu.edu