Soccer drops 3
With losses at Gonzaga and Eastern Washington over the weekend and a defeat at BYU Tuesday, the Utah State soccer team fell to 1-4 on the season and remains winless on the road.
“Preseason’s over,” head coach Heather Cairns said. “You’ve got to win the games you’re supposed to win.”
Scoreless in the first half against Gonzaga on Friday, the Ags jumped out early in the second half tying the game at 1-1 on a Charlsie Harris goal. Harris’ goal was her team-leading second on the season. Charity Weston notched the assist.
But USU was unable to hold on as the Bulldogs scored a few minutes later on a Sarah Hawkins penalty kick.
“We lost our momentum and they scored 10 minutes later,” Cairns said. “We just didn’t put together a 90 minute game.”
The Bulldogs out-shot USU 17-9 on the day. Aggie goalkeeper Megan Mills recorded 5 saves for the game.
Sunday was more of the same for the Aggies.
Despite out-shooting Eastern Washington 20-6, the Ags were held scoreless and fell to the Eagles 1-0.
The game’s only goal came off a corner kick in the first half when Eagle Jennie Summers found teammate Cyeeta Mott for the score.
“We were playing hard,” Cairns said. “But we let down for five minutes and lost on a corner kick.”
Cairns said her team’s effort against Eastern Washington was subpar, but said she could not take anything away from the Eagle’s performance.
“You’ve got to give it to Eastern Washington,” Cairns said. “They were organized and disciplined and did what they had to do [to win].”
Of USU’s 20 shots, five were on goal, while Eastern Washington only managed to get two on goal. Mills recorded one save for the Aggies and allowed one goal in 90 minutes. EWU goalie Tier Como earned the shutout with five saves.
As much as last weeks win over Weber was a team effort, Cairns said her team’s winless weekend was also a team effort.
“It’s not just our defense,” Cairns said. “And it’s not just our attack. It’s definitely a team [problem] .”
Cairns said she needs her team to put together a complete game if they hope to bounce back.
“You lose two on the road,” Cairns said, “you out-shoot a team 20-6, sure you’re going to be disappointed. But how do you solve it? We need to put together a 90 minute game. One mistake cost us – just that one mistake.”
Against BYU, the Aggies recorded seven shots, three of which on goal, but were held scoreless over 90 minutes. The Cougars won 2-0 on goals by Jamie Rendich and Krissa Reinbold.
The Ags play their next game at home on Saturday against UVSC. The game starts at 1 p.m. at Bell field.
-acf@cc.usu.edu