Ags lose by one to Wildcats

The Utah State women’s soccer team lost on the road for the third time this season as Weber State scored in the 62nd minute to win 1-0.

Lisa Willardson started in goal for the Ags since Kelli Allred suffered a concussion in practice last week. Willardson’s last start was the lone shutout for the Aggies against Air Force a couple weeks ago.

It didn’t play out as well on Saturday as the Wildcats took 16 shots and Willardson had five saves, but allowed the game-winning goal in the second half.

Nothing worked for the Aggies on Saturday, Head Coach Heather Cairns said.

“If we’ve had a bad half, we could string together a good second half, but that didn’t happen,” she said. “We didn’t defend or attack as a group. We weren’t thinking.”

Usually, the Aggies are able to score in the flow of play, not waiting for corner kicks or other set plays, but on Saturday the offense flip-flopped and couldn’t get anything to work, Carins said.

The Ags had eight corner kicks for the game, five in the second half, which was the only positive of the game, Cairns said. The Aggies took 15 shots against the Wildcats, five on goal.

Cairns said the Aggies weren’t doing the things they had been doing in practice and the last stretch of home games.

“We didn’t fail in any one thing,” Carins said. “We failed at everything.”

Other than the offense struggling to fit into the flow of the game, the type of game was also different than expected, Cairns said. She said she had thought the game would be a high-scoring 3-2 game or some type of shootout.

Big plays and the Aggies’ reaction to Weber’s plays would be important, Cairns said. After the Wildcats scored off a set play, the Aggies didn’t respond as fast as Cairns said she had expected.

The Aggies didn’t push the ball forward right away as they waited until the last 10 minutes of the half to get involved and put pressure on the Wildcat defense.

For the season, the Ags haven’t won on the road, compiling a 0-3-1 record away from Logan. At home, the Aggies are 2-3-2, with their two wins coming against Idaho State and San Francisco.

The Aggies will play their last non-conference game against UVSC Wednesday in Orem.

Sunday will be the Aggies’ first Western Athletic Conference home game as they play Louisiana Tech at noon.

-krn@cc.usu.edu