Aggies can’t catch up
The Utah State Aggies women’s soccer team returned home to face the Bears of the University of Northern Colorado at Chuck and Gloria Soccer Field and lost their first game of the season 1-0.
The two teams traded possession for much of the first half as neither team could find a rhythm to the game. The Aggies threatened the Bears’ goal for the first time in the 25th minute. Maris Hamblin crossed the ball into the box and a soaring Kendra Pemberton put a foot on the ball, but wasn’t able to direct it toward goal.
Pemberton had another golden opportunity in the final minute of the half to give USU the lead. Her header was cleared off the line by a UNC defender.
The teams went into the break tied at zero.
The second half began much like the first until the Aggies awoke in the 65th minute. Pemberton was once again involved in the action taking a shot on goal that was saved by Northern Colorado keeper Natalie D’Adamio.
“In the second half, we came out on fire and adjusted a lot of issues at halftime and got better, but a combination of not being able to put those away come back to bite you in the end,” USU head coach Heather Cairns said. “I think what showed was our inexperience.”
After a quiet first, junior midfielder Jennifer Flynn looked alive in the second. In the 67th minute, she received the ball on the right wing and took it into the 18-yard box, but D’adamio had a spectacular diving save to keep the game deadlocked.
“We had our opportunities we just couldn’t finish and they had one shot on goal and they made it,” Flynn said. “That’s how soccer works. It’s not who shoots more, it’s who scores more and today they scored more.”
Three minutes later the Bears caught the Aggies off-guard and scored the only goal of the match off a free kick in the middle of the field. Defender Ambree Bellin crossed the ball to the head of freshman midfielder Morgan Rynearson who found the back of the net.
“If they had scored in the first half when we weren’t playing that well, we could have accepted that a little bit better,” Cairns said. “But to score on the only shot of the half, it was frustrating.”
USU countered for the final 20 minutes of the match with an onslaught of shots, but to no avail.
The Aggies outshot the Bears 13-1 in the second half.
“It obviously didn’t end how we wanted it to. We wanted the win,” said Aggie goalkeeper Ashlyn Mulford. “We had a lot of moments where we did really good and we had a lot of moments where we are still trying to put things together, still trying to learn.”
With the loss USU falls to 3-1-1 on the season. The Aggies will travel to Orem to take on Utah Valley on Sunday.
jborba@aggiemail.usu.edu