Soccer shuts out Vandals, extends winning streak
Sophomore forward Jennifer Flynn led the Utah State women’s soccer team to a 3-0 victory over Idaho University Friday.
Flynn tallied two goals for the Aggies, as they proved too tough for the Vandals on the road. Senior goalkeeper Molli Merrill was credited with the shutout for the Aggies.
“Jen was great,” head coach Heather Cairns said. “She was pulling the trigger and was finding her shot. Molli was solid — our entire back line was solid. When we keep a clean sheet, the back five take a lot of pride in that.”
The Vandals out-shot the Aggies in the first half, but neither team was able to find the back of the net.
Idaho was unable to capitalize on three different occasions in the first 15 minutes of play. Junior midfielder Megan Lopez forced some early defense from the Aggie back line just eight minutes in, and Lopez had two other chances in the second half.
USU senior forward Shantel Flanary kept the Vandal defense busy early, with one chance glancing off an Idaho defender in the 13th minute and then missing wide-left on a strike in the 29th minute.
“We didn’t take many shots in the first half, but the second half we came out and solved that rather quickly,” Cairns said. “The girls definitely came out on fire.”
It took Flynn and the Aggies roughly three minutes to pull ahead in the second half. Flynn took a ball from senior midfielder Chandra Salmon-Christensen in the 48th minute and put it past the Vandal goalkeeper into the back of the net.
Flynn struck again two minutes later.
Flanary found Flynn open in front of the net and when Flynn took the pass the ball was once again in the net. Flynn’s second goal of the match was her fifth on the season and gave the Aggies all the cushion they would need.
“The second half we were able to impose our style of play,” Cairns said. “The first half, our speed of play was a little slow. We were back on our heels a little bit.”
USU would keep the pressure on, out-shooting IU in the second half, and freshman defender Taryn Rose tapped in her first goal of the season, with Flanary again getting the assist.
“In the second half we did a much better job, our speed of play picked up,” Cairns said. “Particularly in the attack, we caused their defense to get stretched out a bit more.”
With the win, Utah State improved to 12-4-1 on the season and moved to 4-1 in WAC play. Idaho fell to 6-9-3 on the year, and dropped to 2-3-1 in the WAC.
The Aggies close out the season with two games at home, the first coming Oct. 28 against the Spartans of San Jose State University. That match is scheduled for 3 p.m. USU then hosts Fresno State on its Senior Night Oct. 30 at 1 p.m.
“It’s going to be fun to be back at home, to be plugging away at a possible regular season conference title,” Cairns said. “We have a shot, but we took care of business today, and we’re going to look forward to Friday.”
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu