Men’s club soccer takes important come from behind victory over WSU Wildcats
In its final home game of the season, the Utah State University men’s club soccer team came from behind against the Weber State University Wildcats Saturday to grab the 3-2 overtime victory.
Saturday’s victory is the first time in four years USU has defeated Weber State. Weber has been nationally ranked for the past several seasons and has also performed well at nationals, establishing themselves as one of the top club teams in the country.
“We’ve been waiting for that [victory] for four years,” USU goalkeeper Paul Dowdy said.
Utah State struck early in the game, scoring with less than two minutes off the clock. Forward Neal Obray was able to get down field and receive a pass from near midfield. As the Weber State bench was screaming for an offsides call, Obray beat one defender, sidestepped the goalie and put a low shot past the goalkeeper, right down the middle.
“In the first half we controlled the game well,” Dowdy said. “I wasn’t too busy.”
USU had the 1-0 lead going into the first half, but they still had 45 minutes of soccer ahead of them.
In the second half, Weber started with much more intensity, pushing the Aggie defense and making some strong runs.
The intensity paid off for Weber 25 minutes into the half. The Wildcats were working the ball around the USU goal and got off a low shot just outside of the goal box. The shot bounced down the middle, sliding past Dowdy and into the net for Weber’s first goal of the game.
With the score tied at 1-1 and time starting to run out, both teams appeared to pick up their level of play with one team, then the other, making a run at the goal.
The opportunity to go ahead came for Weber with less than 10 minutes left in the game. A Wildcat player was working the ball into the USU goal box when an Aggie player slid trying to knock the ball away. The Wildcat player went down on the play and Weber State was given a penalty kick.
As Weber took their penalty kick, the ball at first seemed to be high, but it caught the bottom of the cross post and deflected downward into the goal, past Dowdy’s outstretched arms, hitting the back of the net. Weber was then up 2-1.
In the final minutes, the game became frantic as USU pushed for the equalizing goal. The Aggies had several shots, but were unable to put one past the WSU goalkeeper.
With the Weber goalkeeper working frantically to stop the previous attempts, midfielder Danny Spillman was able to take an open shot and put it into the goal to tie the game.
“James Barnard played the ball from the baseline, Neal Obray touched it and I was there to clean it up,” Spillman said.
As a result of Spillman’s goal, the game ended with the score tied at 2-2, giving the Aggies hope for victory in sudden death overtime.
Less than 30 seconds into overtime, forward James Barnard received the ball as he was breaking down field. Barnard beat the lone Wildcat defender and in seconds put the ball and the game away, slipping a low near-post shot past the Weber goalkeeper.
“It was magic,” Barnard said. “[Spillman] crossed me the ball and I was in the right place at the right time. I gave the ball a little toe poke [to put it in].”
Spillman, Barnard and Dowdy all said the key to the win was the team coming together and playing the entire game.
“We knew we could do it,” Barnard said. “We finally put two and two together, we made it work.”
The victory moved Utah State to 2-3 at home, 7-8-1 on the season.
“It was a great way to finish at home,” Spillman said.