Charity does it again for Ag soccer
The Aggies were everywhere San Francisco didn’t want them to be.
After a sluggish first half, the USU forwards dominated the field, prevented the Dons from scoring, and landed a goal off two assists for the win Monday at the Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field.
In the 58 minute of play, senior midfielder Sierra Smith fed the ball to freshman forward Erin Salmon on the right wing. Once in possession, Salmon used quick footwork to sneak past two Don defenders and cross the ball to Weston, who drilled the ball from inside the 6-yard box to the left of USF goalkeeper Kelly Pohle and into the net.
“I look up and (Salmon’s) making this wonderful dribbling run in the box,” Head Coach Heather Carins said. “The soccer fates were with us today I guess. The goal was a great setup.”
Weston’s goal marks her second straight winning score, as she headed a ball into the net to beat Eastern Washington University on Friday. Salmon’s assist gives her five points on the season, making her the point leader for the team.
The opening of the game showed a strong USF offense that capitalized on speed and slower Aggie response. Ten minutes into the game, USF launched a shot that sent sophomore goalkeeper Ali Griffin diving to save the ball.
Regrouping, the Aggies attempted an attack but couldn’t land a goal despite close shots by junior midfielder Dana Peart and sophomore midfielder Shannon Ross.
With less than four minutes left in the half, USF fired a shot that escaped Griffin and looked to go in the net, but bounced off the crossbar and was cleared by Aggie defenders.
“The thing that I’m most proud of was we competed today,” Cairns said. “The first half we looked flat for a full 45 minutes. I didn’t feel we had energy, I thought we were reacting to what they were doing, and to come out at halftime and to bring that energy and be the aggressors and see that spunk, I was happy we were able to make that change. We needed to make a change at halftime. It was just not good enough the first half.”
At the half, Cairns said she talked to her team about bringing spunk and personality into the game, making tackles, winning balls in the air and winning one-on-one battles.
“We’re a spunky team and we fight hard,” Cairns said. “We were so reactionary that first half and we needed to make a change.”
Something did change. Moving Weston from midfielder to forward changed the pace of the game, Cairns said. In the second half the Aggies showed life that was lacking in the first half, she said. Though smaller than the Dons, the Aggies won balls in the air and used a mixture of short and long cross passes to keep the USF defense scrambling to keep up.
After Weston’s goal, the Don’s struggled to find scoring opportunities until the final 10 minutes of the game.
“It helped a lot because they felt like they had to ping it forward,” Salmon said of the Don’s struggles after the goal. “It helped a lot with our progression because we could bring the ball down and they just wanted to get it forward.”
The Aggies maintained their offensive edge the remainder of the half, finding multiple scoring opportunities but never landing the ball in the net. Near the end of the half, USU employed time-delaying strategies to prevent the Don’s from getting near Griffin.
The defensive front, fortified by sophomore defender Alyssa Lowry, held off two close shots in the final minutes of the game to seal the win for the Aggies.
With the win, the Aggies improve to 5-6 on the season. Only one game remains before the opening of WAC play against Louisiana Tech. The Aggies face Utah Valley State College on Friday at the Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field. The game starts at 3 p.m.
-sethhawkins@cc.usu.edu