USU mens soccer wins back-to-back contests as regionals approach
Weber State made a late push Thursday night, but one wasn’t enough as the Aggies were too dominant and finished with a season-high four goals to earn a 4-1 victory.
The game started off without much action as the high press of both Weber and Utah State limited the amount of chances for the first 15 minutes as both teams tried to find a groove. This was until a hard foul resulted in a free-kick for the Aggies, which forward Jaden Bybee capitalized on by delivering a laser strike from about 25 yards out, which made its way past the keeper and into the bottom left corner of the net.
Just four minutes later, Bybee struck again. This time, he found some space in-between a couple of defenders at the top of the field and had a great ball played into him. It led to Bybee making a couple of moves to create enough space to get a boot on the ball, and he blasted it into the bottom left corner of the net.
Bybee spoke about some of the opportunities Weber State gave him.
“I just saw the space,” he said. “I saw that their outside backs kept pushing high and their center backs weren’t following me wide, so I was just kinda sitting in high space waiting for an opportunity for us to win it and play it through.”
The rest of the first half consisted mostly by Utah State putting pressure on Weber State and controlling the ball for 60 to 70 percent of the half. Weber State tried to create chances, but the Aggie defense was well organized, and Weber State was only able to get off one shot in the first half. Utah State went into the half up two-nil.
The second half was a different story for Weber State. They came out very aggressive and were constantly putting pressure on Utah State. They controlled the ball for most of the opening minutes in the half, which resulted in them getting off seven shots in the second half. However, Utah State was ready to respond and in the 74th minute pushed their lead a little more with a goal from forward Caleb Lounsbury. This came from a beautiful series of play where Bybee fielded a good ball played into him on Weber’s side of the field, dribbled down the left side of the box on the shoulder of a defender. Bybee then cut it back and played a great ball into the middle of the box where Lounsbury gathered it with his right foot, switched over to his left, and blasted a curler past the keeper into the bottom right corner of the net.
Lounsbury was aggressive all game looking for a goal, making some great runs and even hitting one off the post in the 34th minute. He was relieved to get his first goal of the season.
“Oh it felt great, finally to get one, I needed that break-through.” Lounsbury said, putting his recent struggles to the side. “I’m hoping personally, that the curse is lifted a little bit and I can continue to help this team out.”
Weber State wasn’t fazed at all and continued their attacking ways despite being down by three goals. They came back with one of their own just three minutes later in the 77th minute.
From this point on, the Wildcats played like they knew they could cut the lead even more. For the next ten minutes Weber State was very aggressive, but in the end it didn’t amount to anything as the Aggies were able to hang on to their lead. Utah State even put another goal in during stoppage time when Connor Ecalono’s pressure finally got to the defense, resulting in Utah State stretching their lead to 4-1.
Ecalono was happy about his goal, and his great run which resulted in him getting a shot off.
“I knew from the beginning, I knew I wanted to score,” he said. “I knew I was gonna make that run and do my best to score. In my head, I knew I wasn’t going to pass.”
Just minutes before, Ecalono almost put a strike past the keeper, but a great diving save kept the ball out of the back of the net.
The Aggies have been fighting through some injuries over the last couple games but despite that, they have looked really well-rounded as a team and look to take that good form into their next couple games.
They improved to 3-2-1 coming into Saturday’s matchup with USU Eastern.
Saturday night offered a different look for the Utah State side as they started seven new players, but it was much to the same result as they earned a 3-0 win over USU Eastern with their first clean sheet of the season.
Even though this game wasn’t going to count in the standings, the Aggies still put their best foot forward in gearing up for a weekend of two big matchups that will determine if they make it to regionals the following week.
The game started out fast as Utah State earned themselves a corner in the third minute, which forward Tyler Nelson almost headed in for a goal. Two minutes later the Aggies were able to put one in as Nelson pulled in a ball with a great first touch at the top of the box right in front of a defender. He then played a good ball over to forward Gabe Beebe who was trailing him on the right side of the box. A powerful strike from Beebe was enough to put it past the keeper even with him getting a hand on it, and into the bottom right corner, sneaking just by the post.
Coming off an injury, Beebe was happy to get the start and get a goal.
“I mean my first goal of the season, coming off injury, it just felt good to hit it and lucky it went through,” Beebe said.
USU Eastern didn’t go without their chances, though. In the 21st minute they made a great move to get on a fast break and get the ball into the box, but when the ball was played over to strike it in front of goal, they missed their opportunity to even things up. A wide-open chance eight yards in front of goal was scuffed wide left by one of the USU Eastern players, keeping the Aggies lead at 1-0.
Utah State couldn’t stretch that lead as they only got off three more shots the rest of the half, but a free-kick rocket of a strike from Romney Harker that went just left of goal certainly made the opposing team a little nervous. This ended most of the action in the first half. USU Eastern was only able to get off two more shots, one of which keeper Gabe Guerrero, in a great piece of effort, went to ground to scoop up the ball before Eastern could get a shot off on goal.
The second half was a different story for both teams. The Aggies continued to put pressure on USU Eastern and were able to get off eight shots in the half, which resulted in two goals. USU Eastern, on the other hand, tallied more yellow cards than they did shots by a count of four to three. One positive for USU Eastern was despite their two goals given up in the half, the defense was able to prevent three more almost sure goals from going in. An Austin Howard header off a corner was sent over the post by a defender, and two solid attempts at goal by Bybee were met with good saves by the keeper.
A couple of excellent pieces of play for Utah State resulted in the two goals, both of which were attributed to being in the right place and ready to capitalize. In the 49th minute, midfielder Aye Moe made a great run with the ball through the Eastern defense and got off a clean shot that was deflected off the keeper. Luckily, Ecalono was in position to bang it into the net.
With being back-to-back games for Ecalono with a goal, he felt like he’s in a groove.
“After I got my first one yesterday, I think I just have more confidence and I’m taking more shots and one happened to go in,” he said. “I was happy to get that chance.”
In a similar set of circumstances, Lounsbury was able to get goals in back-to-back games coming off a great team effort between him and Bybee, this coming in the 90th minute against USU Eastern.
“Jaden set it up because he was the one who was putting pressure on the forward and I was just lucky to be in that position,” Lounsbury said. “I’m glad I could finish the opportunity.”
On what was a very cold night at the Legacy Fields, the Aggies were happy to get out of there healthy and with a win looking forward to a big weekend with back-to-back games against BYU and Weber State. The game against Weber State will act as a play-in game to determine who gets to go to regionals the following weekend.
Aggie captain Tevan Tippets shared his thoughts coming into such a big game.
“Weber State, that’s a big game for us,” Tippets said. “We beat them once this week already, so hopefully we can go down there, beat them at their place, and go up to Oregon for that regional tournament.”
BYU is undefeated in league play and has already earned a spot in nationals, which gives the Aggies life in the playoff race for the Intermountain division.
The games next weekend will both be on the road, Friday at BYU and Saturday at Weber State.