By A crowd of 929 watched as the Long Beach State women’s soccer team defeated the rival Fullerton Titans 1-0 in an overtime thriller on Sunday night at George Allen Field.
Sophomore striker Ashley Gonzalez scored her fifth goal of the season, in the 93rd minute. The goal came on Gonzalez’s eighth shot of the game.
“I honestly think that I was a little off today,” Gonzalez said. “But, you’ve just got to keep working.”
Gonzalez found the net with one touch after senior defender Val Margerum lobbed a free kick into the box and senior defender Melanie Fox flicked the ball back to the striker.
“I was expecting it because during halftime one of our coaches told us to get behind [Melanie Fox],” Gonzalez said. “[He said] she’s going to flick it on and just stay hungry for the goal.”
LBSU (6-3-3, 1-0-0) had a great chance of going up early in the game. Gonzalez found herself in a one-on-one against Fullerton goalkeeper Jennifer Stuart, but her shot was just a bit wide.
Gonzalez then had three more decent chances to put LBSU on the board in the first half alone.
The best chance came in the 36th minute after freshman forward Fatmata Kamara shook off a defender and found a streaking Gonzalez with a through ball. Stuart, however, was quick off her line and smothered Gonzalez’s shot to keep the score tied at zero heading into the half.
Fullerton (8-2-1, 0-1-0) came out in the second half looking to mount an attack, but the 49ers quickly regained control of possession and proceeded to put pressure on the Titans for the rest of the game.
Gonzalez again had the best chance of the second half. But in the 65th minute, Stuart again was quick off her line to stop an open Victoria Bolden and ended up crashing into the sophomore striker. Gonzalez got two shots off while the CSUF keeper was on the ground, but the Fullerton defenders were there both times to clear the ball from the empty net.
“[Gonzalez] got a little bit of an earful at halftime. I don’t mind us missing opportunities, but put the keeper to work,” head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “But, she’s always going to be the Energizer bunny and staying persistent.”
The game headed into overtime where the 49ers put the game away after only three minutes. Fullerton’s head coach Damien Brown praised LBSU for its tenacity and determination.
“The goal that they scored is indicative of the type of team that Long Beach is and it’s something that we have to get better at,” Brown said. “Just that grinding moment where they were faster to a ball.”
Overall, the LBSU outshot the Titans 16-8. Junior goalkeeper Ashton McKeown made four saves while CSUF keepers Stuart and Morgan Bertsch combined for six saves.
The 49ers head to San Luis Obispo and look to go 2-0-0 in conference when they face Cal Poly on Thursday at 5 p.m.
[standings sport=”Soccer” season=”2015-2016″ align=”center” type=”conference” background=”on” border=”all” shadow=”on”]
