Aggies battle Spartans
The Utah State women’s soccer team began their final two home games of the regular season on Friday. The Aggies returned home after finishing their road portion of the WAC schedule. USU hosted San Jose State and beat the Spartans 1-0.
“This was a very important win for our team,” USU head coach Heather Cairns said. “Coming in we were fatigued and banged up, so in the first half we lacked energy. We played okay, but we were fortunate to go 0-0 at halftime. We challenged them at halftime telling them they had to do more. Our goal was to win the second half and we did that.”
With the win the Aggies improve their record to 10-2-6 on the season and 5-0-2 in the WAC. USU maintains their lead atop of the WAC standings and are on the verge of clinching their second consecutive WAC regular season championship. The Aggies currently have 17 points with one game remaining, while Louisiana Tech sits in second with 11 points and three games remaining.
Cairns reached a milestone with the win over San Jose State. She became the winningest coach in program history with 100 wins. Over her last 10 years at the helm of the Aggies, Cairns has a 100-77-25 record.
The first half was not one either team will proudly remember. Both teams came out poorly and goal scoring chances were few and far between.
San Jose outshot USU in the half 7-6, but only two of the shots were on goal. Five of the six shots by the Aggies were on goal, but none of them troubled Spartans freshman goalkeeper, Zoe Makrigiannis.
USU’s best chances came in the seventh and 30th minutes of the first half, but the ball didn’t find its way into the back of the net.
SJSU almost broke the deadlock in the 40th minute, but junior Cheryl Kute’s shot hit the crossbar before going out of bounds.
“We felt in the first half that our attack was very one-person based,” Cairns said. “It was one person running down the ball or one person dribbling.”
In the second half, the Aggies took control of the game. USU outshot SJSU 16-4 in the half, and also produced six corner kicks to SJSU’s one.
“In the first half we weren’t connecting as well as we wanted to,” USU junior Shay Haddow said. “In the second half we just connected, played forward and got through the backline.”
In the 52nd minute, USU had their best shot of taking the lead, but sophomore Lauren Roundy had her shot blocked in front of the goal after a cross from junior Jennifer Flynn.
Just three minutes later Roundy and Flynn connected once again but this time produced the first goal of the match. Roundy found Flynn streaking down the middle of the field and played her a through ball. With just the goalkeeper in front of her, Flynn slipped the ball past and into the back of the net. It was Flynn’s sixth goal of the season.
“In the second half we had much more people supporting the attack,” Cairns said. “That makes a big difference for us. Jen (Flynn) made a wicked hard run off of Roundy dribbling and that’s what we needed. We needed to attack in a group opposed to one versus one.”
The Aggies took the 1-0 lead and the game finished that way despite relentless pressure by USU.
In the 57th minute, USU junior defender Jackie Tillotson blasted a shot from outside of the 18-yard box but Makrigiannis made the save.
Once again in the 63rd minute, the Aggies pressured the backline of the Spartans. This time it was sophomore Jade Tarver who turned defense into offense by taking the ball up the left sideline. She took the shot from a difficult angle and saw the ball pass right in front of goal.
“We had a couple really close, but you’re going to have those in ever
y game so we are lucky we got one in,” Flynn said. “One is better than nothing and it won us the game.”
The woodwork denied USU a chance to double or even triple the lead when Tarver once again shot at goal, and senior defender Natalie Norris had her header stopped by the post.
“We failed to get that second goal and to really put some distance which made the last 10-15 minutes of the half really interesting with them pressing,” Cairns said. “We would like to put teams away a little bit more, but in the end of the day we grinded it out and got the win.”
It was yet another shutout victory for USU. They now have nine on the season. Senior goalkeeper Ashlyn Mulford 8-1-5 on the season.
“Our defense takes pride in shutouts,” Cairns said. “Whether we score in the first half or whether we score in the second half our defense really wants to make sure that they give our attack a chance to score one goal and make that the game winner. They take pride in that.”
With the win the Aggies remain undefeated in WAC play and have won five consecutive matches. USU has also won at least nine games in six consecutive seasons.
The Aggies will play their final regular season home game on Oct. 29 when they host second-place Louisiana Tech. The game is scheduled for a 12 p.m. kick-off. Before the match, USU will honor its three seniors: Ashlyn Mulford, Natalie Norris and Kami Montgomery.
‒ jborba@aggiemail.usu.edu