Lack of focus, rescinded call cost Ags
The final seconds of the USU-Boise State showdown came down to a clock, a call, a corner kick and a whole lot of confusion.
The end result was a bitter 2-1 defeat at home, Sunday.
As the clock winded down, the USU soccer squad rallied to attempt to overcome their 2-1 deficit and even things up, sending the game into overtime. Junior defender Alyssa Lowry charged down the right side of the field before getting tangled up with a Boise State defender and sending the ball out, resulting in a cornerkick. The Boise State defender was slow to get up and the referee signaled for the clock to stop with three seconds remaining, a confusing call to both the USU and Bronco sidelines.
Somehow between the time when the Boise State player returned to her feet and the ball was sent to the corner, the clock had moved to 1.4 seconds before being stalled again. USU defender Lindsey Smart took the corner kick, lofting a well-placed ball to junior midfielder Lacey Christenson, who had headed the ball to the back of the net for the tie.
The USU bench rushed the field as the BSU coaches sought out the referees for a review. The field was filled with players and frustrated coaches screaming and shouting. Following a lengthy consultation among the referees, it was announced that time had expired and the goal was rescinded, handing Boise State the win.
USU Head Coach Heather Cairns said of the confusion, “When the girl went down, (the referee) stopped it at three (seconds), and the next thing I look up and it’s one-point something. And he lets us take the kick and the ball goes in the back of the net. Sometime in that time the buzzer went off. He signaled the goal and then he takes the goal away. That’s what I saw. I’ve never seen a referee take a goal away. That’s what I saw. I don’t know. And that’s where usually where a referee will take control of a game, in a situation like that.
“I think that’s why there was so much confusion because nobody was sure what he was thinking. Regardless, the score stands and we shouldn’t have let it get to that point. That’s what I’m most upset about. We had the one goal lead and we let it slip away. We really weren’t mentally strong enough to want to finish off that game.”
The first half of the match was dominated by the Aggies, as they owned a 8-3 shot advantage and spent the majority of the time on the Boise State side, threatening to score. The sure hands of Bronco goalkeeper Jennifer Burns kept BSU alive in the first half.
Had USU scored a goal in the first half, as they were threatening to, Cairns said the game would have been “completely different because they were on their heels.” “What I did tell the team is, have faith, have faith that it’s going to come. And I think for the most part we did and it came,” she said. “But then we weren’t mentally prepared to finish it off. So, certainly an early goal would have changed the game and made our lives easier.”
The second half was a different ball game for the Aggies.
Coming out with as much fire as was lacking in the first half, the Broncos kept the ball busy transversing the length of the field as both teams took turns at offensive attacks. Boise State seemed poised to score with two dangerous shots but both missed the mark.
In the 72 minute, the Aggies got the first points on the board off a free kick. Sophomore defender Sydne Porter, who has a leg that can send the ball easily half the length of the field, lined up for the shot with fellow defender Smart. Porter pounded the ball, sending it sailing over the heads of all defenders and the goaltender to land solidly in the back of the net. The shot was taken from more than 30 yards out and was spot on, giving the Aggies a 1-0 advantage.
“I’ve definitely taken a lot of those kicks this year and it’s great to finally reward my team for getting the fouls and get a good shot in,” Porter said. “My free kicks were pretty shaky today but (Smart) came up to me and restored my confidence in myself to take it. She believed in me before I believed in myself, I guess. At least someone believed in me.”
Not deterred by the score, Boise State cut the Aggie celebration short at the 73 minute mark as Emma Boyack squeezed past the USU defenders on the left side and took Aggie goalkeeper Ali Griffin one on one. Faking Griffin out, causing her to slip, Boyack took an easy shot from the six yard box to even the score.
Not wanting to be outdone, the Ags came back, spurred on by freshman forward Lauren Hansen, who penetrated the Bronco defense and had three dangerously close shots, but none of them went in.
Despite all the threatening by the Aggies, it was Boise State who put in the next goal in the 86 minute. Boyack was deadly again, giving an assist to Randi Baker who nailed a hard kick to the right corner of the net from 20 yards out on the left side. Griffin tipped the ball but the ball bounced backwards off her fingers and into the net to give the Broncos the lead.
The Aggies struggled to get anything going the rest of the game, struggling with the loss of senior forward Dana Peart, the team’s leading scorer, who left early in the half from a knee injury. Until the final seconds, the Aggies couldn’t get anything going and the rest is history.
“It’s coming down to mental toughness,” Cairns said of the loss. “This was actually a pretty well-executed game. I thought we played really well besides giving up goals and scoring goals. That’s not going to get it done in WAC play so we’ve got to be better on both ends of the ball. Both ends of the ball it comes down to mental toughness. Not letting that player get a shot off. Not letting that player get a step on you to be able to run by you. In the attacking end, just toe-poking or redirecting, anything to put the ball on frame. It’s mental toughness right now and hopefully we learned a good lesson today. Again, it shouldn’t have come down to that play.”
-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu