Ags top Dons
The longest winless streak in Utah State women’s soccer history ended at 10 games on Thursday with a solid 3-1 win over the University of San Francisco at Bell Tower Field.
Charity Weston lead the Aggies with two goals, both assisted by Lacey Christenson, who also found net.
“It feels pretty dang good,” Utah State Head Coach Heather Cairns said of getting the win. “We’ve been in games all season long and we’ve felt like we’ve played well at times and haven’t been able to put it all together, and my goodness, did we ever today!”
Things did not start well for the Aggies as they went down 1-0 in only the third minute of play.
Utah State responded in the ninth minute. Jessica Darrow floated a free kick from half field to the head of Christenson, who flicked it on to Weston at the top of the box.
Weston took a touch to beat her mark and slotted home her first goal of the year to bring the score level at 1-1.
“Charity, she’s been playing so well all year and for her to finally get that first goal is like a weight off,” Cairns said. “She’s had a lot of shots for us and for her to put that shot away is great.”
Weston wasn’t finished.
In the final minute before the intermission, Christenson played a perfectly weighted pass into Weston’s stride. The USU striker was alone with the USF goalkeeper and calmly found the back of the net for the second time on the evening.
“It feels awesome,” Weston said of scoring after many near misses this season. “Getting that off my back. I’ve hit the post so many times this season, so it feels good.”
Even with a 2-1 lead, Utah State continued to pressure the San Francisco defense throughout the second half.
“We didn’t want to stop attacking [in the second half] because as soon as you stop attacking, then you’re on your heels and your mentality changes and we didn’t want to change that,” Cairns said.
The offensive pressure paid off for Utah State in the 83rd minute when Christenson received the ball at the top of the penalty area.
She eluded her defender with a quick step over and then floated her shot over the San Francisco goalkeeper.
Cairns said Christenson’s goal was not the only part of her game that helped the team get the win.
“Lacey was not only great today because she got on the board and helped us, but you saw her running down balls and she was tackling people. She was keeping the ball for us and she rarely turned the ball over – she had a phenomenal game all together,” Cairns said.
Weston felt that coming together as a team is what made the difference.
“Putting together a lot of things as a team,” said Weston. “We all played a lot quicker. We had a lot of support from the midfields as well and finally, the forwards got in and got a lot of through balls.”
Cairns agreed that the team came together and played as one, making them more dangerous.
“When we attacked, when we defended, we did it with 11 people – and that makes your team faster. It was a result of everyone working together, all 11 people at any one time were working together,” she said.
Utah State continues their home stand on Saturday when they face Idaho State. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at Bell Field.
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