Soccer beats Vandals in Moscow
Utah State finished their regular-season road schedule Saturday in Moscow, Idaho, against the Idaho Vandals. With the 3-1 victory, the Aggies extended their unbeaten streak to 7 games and remain undefeated in conference play.
“We played solid,” said Utah State head coach Heather Cairns. “It wasn’t the prettiest soccer, but it was competitive and we gutted out the win. I’m very happy with how we handled this game.”
Utah State scored first with a Jade Tarver goal in the 35th minute. The goal was Tarver’s fourth on the season and gave the Aggies a 1-0 advantage going into halftime.
“We knew we needed to score more goals after halftime,” Cairns said. “Idaho had momentum after beating San Jose 2-0 in their last game. We needed to put them away in the second half.”
The Aggies struck again in the 76th minute when Tarver passed to Ambryn McCallson, who found the top corner of the net for her first goal of the season.
Idaho responded with 10 minutes left to play as forward Chelsea Small snuck a shot past USU goalkeeper Ashlyn Mulford to make it 2-1.
“There was no time to relax,” Cairns said. “Idaho is a feisty team and they battle the entire time.”
With late pressure coming from Idaho, Utah State’s Mari Miyashiro scored in the 87th minute and put the Aggies up 3-1, keeping the game out of reach for Idaho.
Mulford had five saves in the win, including three in the second half.
Substitutes came up big for the Aggies on Sunday. Both Tarver and McCallson notched a goal and an assist each from the bench and two of the three Utah State goals came from the bench.
“We definitely substituted more,” Cairns said. “We used seven subs and shared the playing time quite a bit. The substitutes really helped us get the victory.”
The Aggies traveled to Moscow for their third game in two days after an overtime win in Seattle on Friday.
“The travel definitely affected us,” said USU sophomore forward Lauren Roundy. “We had tired legs, but we played smart and aggressive and were able to get a couple good goals against their defense.”
Utah State is 14-1 when playing Idaho and hasn’t lost to the Vandals since 2001.
After scoring two goals in a five-game span, Utah State has unloaded a barrage of 12 goals in their last four games, outscoring their opponents 12-2.
“We changed our attacking scheme to be more aggressive, but more than anything it was just having players step up,” Cairns said. “Players are coming in and scoring their first college goals and assists. Our attack is spread across so many talented athletes, it really messes teams up. They can’t key on one player.”
The Aggies play host to San Jose State on Oct. 19 and Louisiana Tech on Oct. 28.
“It’s exciting and it’ll be nice having one game a week,” Roundy said. “We want to have as many fans as we can get to the games to help us get ready for the WAC Tournament.”
With only two games remaining before the Aggies host the WAC Tournament, Cairns hopes the Aggies will finish at the top of the WAC regular season standings.
“We’re going to be going full-boar heading into the WAC Tournament,” Cairns said. “We can’t take the foot off the pedal. That first or second place bye in the WAC Tourney is very important to us.”
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