Santa Barbara, Calif. – Thanks to Kim Silos second half goal, Long Beach State beat UC Santa Barbara 1-0 at Harder Stadium on the UCSB campus Saturday night.
It was the first win for LBSU at UCSB since 2000, and with the victory the 49ers stayed perfect in the Big West with a 3-0 record (11-2-0 overall).
“It was a real nail-biter,” said LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia. “[UCSB] is a really good team, better than their record indicates, and I’m really proud of my team coming here and getting the win.”
In the 73rd minute, Sahar Haghden made a run with the ball deep into the UCSB zone before passing to Dana Farquhar down the right flank. Farquhar quickly laid the ball off to Silos, who one-touched the ball to her left before firing a shot off the inside of the crossbar and into the net.
“We have been working on controlling the ball and then shooting, so I just stayed focused and shot the ball,” Silos said about her goal.
UCSB (2-6-4, 0-1-0 Big West) had the better of the play in the opening half, out-shooting LBSU 7-2.
LBSU center back and captain Natalie Messina injured her left ankle late in the first half and did not return for the remainder of the match.
Amanda Perry replaced Messina on the back line and did well shutting down the UCSB attack.
“Natalie is a very good player, but we also have very good players on the bench,” Haghden said. “Amanda was very good tonight and it shows we have players to fill in for starters if something happens.”
In the 54th minute, it looked as if UCSB scored the first goal of the match when Allie Kuney’s sliding shot went by LBSU keeper Liz Ramos and into the goal. But the linesman called Kuney offside, disallowing the goal.
After LBSU took the lead, UCSB came close to tying the match in the 89th minute.
A scramble in front of the 49ers goal led to Genelle Ives with a point-blank shot from six yards out, but LBSU keeper Liz Ramos came off her line and stuffed the opportunity.
The shutout for Ramos was her eighth of the season and lowered her goals against average to 0.41
Overall this season, LBSU is 7-2-0 on the road, but Saturday’s victory was LBSU’s first conference road win since a 2-1 triumph over Pacific Sept. 30, 2005.
The win also marks the sixth time this season LBSU won a match by a 1-0 score.
Read the Daily Forty-Niner Tuesday to see how the 49ers did Sunday against Cal Poly.
