Women’s soccer posts back-to-back shutouts on road
Utah State won its first two West Athletic Conference (WAC) games on the road in shutout fashion as they beat Louisiana Tech, 1-0, and New Mexico State, 3-0, over the weekend.
Oct. 1, the Aggies traveled to Louisiana for the opening game of WAC conference play. Utah State took the early lead in the 10th minute and held on throughout the match to secure the win.
Midfielder Heather Pond notched the winning goal with a five-yard strike, which came after a pass from forward Shantel Flanary.
“We’re definitely more dangerous in the box,” Cairns said. “We’re creating those chances. That’s always a good sign and gives your attack confidence.
That confidence spilled over to the game on Oct. 3. The Aggie offense scored nearly at-will in the 3-0 shutout against the Aggies of New Mexico State. The last time the two Aggie teams played each other was last year in Logan with an identical score, which was the clinching victory for the second seed in the 2009 WAC tournament for Utah State.
In the 16th minute of the Aggie bowl, USU freshman Kendra Pemberton took a corner kick that bounced around in the box before being cleared out by the defense. The 5’8″ native of North Salt Lake made her way to the top of the 18-yard box to find the ball again, firing a powerful bending shot with her left foot that screamed past New Mexico State keeper Mikaela Bitner.
The next score came in the second half when center back Katie Crosland lined up for a freekick near midfield. Using the wind to her advantage, the sophomore transfer from Pepperdine hit the ball on target and into the net. Cairns commented on the success the girls had in the attack to support the strikers.
“Our forwards can’t take the load of scoring all of our goals,” Cairns said. “We need midfielders to chip in too with some goals. Our attack has to be diverse; we need to have more than just two players who are dangerous.”
Utah State’s two most dangerous scorers hooked up in the final minute of the match to add a knock-out goal. After receiving a throw-in, Shantel Flanary passed the ball into the box to Lauren Hansen who scored from seven yards out.
The assist is the third of the season for Flanary, who also has four goals. Hansen is the team leader at 12 points, one ahead of Flanary’s 11. Hansen’s goal in the match is her fifth of the season, to go along with a pair of assists.
“We talked to the girls about putting nails in the coffin. We had opportunities in the first half that we didn’t take advantage of,” Cairns said. “To be able to play that hard in the 89th minute showed a lot of character.”
Although New Mexico State shot seven times, the USU defense held strong to record their third shutout victory of the season. Coach Cairns said that keeper Molli Merrill played great over the weekend, especially in defending against crosses.
“Molli was solid for us,” Cairns said. “Shutout is a keeper stat, but it reflects the four backs in front of her as well. On Friday, two of our players got clears off the line.”
The victories are the first wins that the Aggies have earned since beating Cal Poly at home Sept. 12 by a score of 3-2 in overtime.
With the two shutout wins, the Aggies (5-4-4) are undefeated in the WAC, but Cairns said it is too early to think about winning the league.
“We take it one game at a time. We want to get into the conference tourney,” Cairns said. “It’s a long season and there’s a lot of great competition in the WAC. Every WAC game is a battle.”
The Aggies will next take on the Wolf Pack of Nevada in the first conference home game of the season. The game will be played this Friday at the Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field, and will kick off four straight home matches for USU. Cairns and the Aggies expect a fight, but are ready to meet the challenge.
“Nevada has traditionally been a competitive physical team,” Cairns said. “We expect a battle. We’ll do our best this week to prepare ourselves for a battle for sure.”
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu