Club Soccer season comes to end with 3-0 victory over Long Beach
The Utah State University men’s club soccer team ended the season with a 3-0 victory, its third straight, against Long Beach State University on Saturday in Las Vegas, Nev.
With the victory, the Aggies moved to 8-8-1 on the season.
Saturday’s game was the second time this season the two teams have met. In the first meeting, on Sept. 30, Long Beach pulled out the 1-0 victory on their home field.
On Saturday though, things were different as it was USU earning the shutout and defeating Long Beach 3-0.
“We went down there [Las Vegas] with confidence,” USU goalkeeper Paul Dowdy said. “We knew we should have beaten them the first time. We wanted to go and make a statement. We wanted revenge.”
The Aggies took the lead about halfway through the first half on a goal by midfielder Craig Moore. Forward Neal Obray made a header attempt, but the ball ricocheted off the crossbeam and bounced on the ground only to be knocked in by Moore who was following through on the play.
“Moore actually hit it in with his stomach, but it’s still a goal,” Dowdy said.
Utah State managed to hold the 1-0 lead until the second half when USU forward James Barnard knocked in two insurance goals for the Aggies, the second on a breakaway, making the final score 3-0.
Dowdy said both the Aggie defense and goalkeeper Bryan Easterman played well in the game.
“Our defense played well, I don’t think [Long Beach] got more than five good looks,” Dowdy said. “Long Beach was struggling with their shots.”
During the week preceding the game, Dowdy said the Aggies did not have a lot of time to practice due to field unavailability and the change from daylight-saving time.
Instead, USU relied on momentum coming from its home victory over Weber State University the previous Saturday. It was the first time in four years the Aggies had defeated Weber State.
“The Weber victory helped, we didn’t have a lot of practice time,” Dowdy said.
Besides getting the victory against Long Beach and going to .500 on the season, Dowdy said the Aggies had a chance to have fun in Las Vegas. Some of the players had never seen Las Vegas and the trip was a good experience for the whole team.
“We all had a great time,” Dowdy said. “We got some time to relax. It was a good way to finish the season.”