By snoadmin
The Long Beach State women’s soccer team saw its seven-game unbeaten streak snapped as it ran into its most physical conference match of the season Thursday against 15th-ranked UC Irvine.
UCI defender CoCo Goodson scored the game-winning goal in the 43rd minute to lift the Anteaters (14-1-2, 6-0-0 Big West Conference) to a 1-0 victory over the 49ers at George Allen Field. Forward Tanya Taylor delivered a one-touch pass inside the box to Goodson, who then fired a rocket that soared past the reach of ‘Niners goalkeeper Emily Kingsborough.
“It was more of just luck on their side,” LBSU defender Nicole Hubbard said of the goal. “It was one lucky shot and it went in.”
49ers forward Nadia Link landed on the back of her head in the 72nd minute when she took a hard fall to the grass after getting tangled up with a UCI player. She appeared to be shaken up after the play, but returned to the field after three minutes on the bench.
The Beach (10-4-2, 3-1-1 Big West) suffered another scare in the final minute of the game when officials momentarily stopped the match after midfielder Lindsay Bullock took an inadvertent shot to the jaw from UCI defender Nikki Forrest. Both players scrambled for a loose ball in the midfield and, in an attempt to clear it out, Forrest kicked her leg up and struck Bullock.
The 49ers breathed a sigh of relief as Bullock managed to get back to her feet after lying on the ground for a few minutes.
The first half yielded a 6-1 advantage in both shots and corner kicks for the Anteaters as they took the 49ers out of their typical aggressive element.
“We’ve been waiting for this game for awhile,” Hubbard said of the first-half shot disparity. “It could’ve been the anxiousness of it all because [the game] was finally here.”
After a stagnant 45 minutes of play, the Beach turned up the heat as it out-shot the Anteaters, 6-2, and maintained possession for most of the second half.
“I thought we did a much better job in the second half of opening the game up and forcing them to play us from different angles,” LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “In the first half, we were too tentative to get forward and even out the numbers in midfield.”
But UCI’s backline denied the ‘Niners any room to operate their offense by clogging up the field, as it held them to a season-low one shot on goal that came in the 63rd minute.
Marysol Rosas sent a cross into the box for Nicole Sweetman, whose header lofted towards the top of the net before being punched off the crossbar by UCI goalkeeper Danielle de Seriere. LBSU’s Karina Camacho then rebounded the deflected shot in the box, but was unable to maintain control of the ball as the Anteaters cleared it out.
The 49ers finished the contest with seven shots as Bullock and Camacho paced the team with two attempts each.
The loss put LBSU eight points behind conference-leading UCI in the Big West standings and essentially takes them out of contention for the regular-season crown. But that doesn’t concern Ingrassia too much because the ‘Niners can still earn an automatic bid for the NCAA tournament.
“Our goal is to go to the conference tournament and win that,” Ingrassia said. “And if it means forsaking the Big West regular season, then that’s fine.”
The Beach returns to Big West action Sunday as it plays host to Cal State Northridge. Kickoff for the 49ers’ last home contest is set for 1 p.m. The team will also acknowledge its seniors before the game.
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