Ags shut out Spartans
For the second straight game, the USU soccer team continued its scoring onslaught and added another column to the USU history books.
For the second straight time this season, the Aggies beat San Jose State 4-0.
But for the first time in USU history, the USU soccer team advanced to the second round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament.
“It feels awesome,” USU Head Coach Heather Cairns said of the victory. “I’m so proud of the girls. They know they did something special. They’re in the USU soccer history books right now. What makes it even more sweet was the journey it took to get here. It didn’t come easy. Anything that doesn’t come easy is worthwhile.”
While the road to this point wasn’t easy, neither was the fight San Jose put up, Cairns said. The Spartans dominated early in the game, Cairns said, looking to redeem themselves from a 4-0 pounding in Logan on Oct. 28.
“It was definitely a different game from the first game,” Cairns said. “They came out hard and really organized. They had a very good game plan early on. They just came out with a lot of energy and it took us a while for us to figure out how best to attack them.”
Not only had the Spartans figured a way to contain much of the Aggie attack, they also had the first solid scoring opportunity, but USU goalkeeper Ali Griffin made the save, one of four on the day in her seventh shutout of the season.
But the Aggies found a weakness in the Spartans’ plan in the 20th minute as junior forward Candice Clark scored her fifth goal of the season, and it was all USU for the rest of the game.
Cairns said she had just substituted in freshman forward Stefani Shiozaki, who won a ball and played it to junior midfielder Lacey Christenson, who dribbled the ball and fed it to Clark, who played a low ball to the corner.
“Our first opportunity came at about 20 minutes,” Cairns said. “Candice buried it. That really set the tone for the whole game. For the first 20 minutes we were on our heels. We stayed organized and weathered the match. We stayed organized and had faith we would get our chances.”
Not only did the Aggies get a chance there, but they repeated it three more times to eliminate any opportunity for the Spartans to get back in the game.
Ten minutes after the first goal, freshman forward Lauren Hansen, who leads the team in scoring, pounded in her 10th goal of the season from seven yards out off an assist from sophomore defender Lindsey Smart.
Hansen’s goal bumped her up in some USU records, where she now stands fifth in goals in a season and in points in a season at 20. After just one season, she is also tied for ninth in career goals.
Utah State scored one more time before the end of the half as junior forward Kiersten Nilsson played the ball to the near post where Clark was waiting. Cairns said Clark “snuck in front of the post and put the ball around (the goalkeeper).”
Up 3-0, the Aggies had the luxury of substituting in bench players, an opportunity Cairns said she is grateful for. She said giving more players a chance to play in the tournament provided experience and a chance for some of the usual starters to rest in anticipation for the next match against Hawaii.
“The nice thing about this game, we were able to play deep into our bench,” Cairns said.
Substitution only seemed to benefit the Aggies as they outshot the Spartans 11-7 and scored a final goal in the 84th minute. Sophomore forward Erin Salmon crossed the ball to freshman midfielder Heather Pond, who was sitting at the penalty kick mark, Cairns said. Pond took a touch and buried it low under the goalkeeper to seal the Aggies’ 4-0 victory.
“We had a lot of people get on the board for us, which is key to our success,” Cairns said. “We weathered it and found ways to spread them out. That was our plan to get by them. Honestly, we wore them down.”
The Aggies don’t get much of a chance to rest as they face No. 1 seed Hawaii, Friday at 3 p.m. in Boise, Idaho. In the last match between the two teams on Oct. 26 in Logan, USU defeated the Rainbow Wahine 3-2, handing them their only conference loss this season.
Cairns said Hawaii’s freshness will be a factor she is concerned with but said she hopes the momentum from beating SJSU will compensate for some exhaustion on her team’s part.
“I hope we come out with a sharpness and a confidence because of today,” Cairns said. “Time will tell. (Hawaii’s) a very good attacking team. It would take a pretty special effort on our part to not let them score at all. It’s not necessarily who is going to score. It’s going to be a question of who’s going to score more.”
-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu