Women's soccer team still looking for offensive rhythm

Soccer • Senior Allison Wiegand tries to avoid a slide tackle by Pacific's Kelsey Nagel during Thursday's 0-0 tie at George Allen Field. Jon Cook/Online Forty-Niner

 

By Claire Howie
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

A 0-0 tie with the Pacific Tigers, and a 2-1 loss to the Matadors of Cal State Northridge were disappointing results for the Long Beach State women's soccer team.

LBSU hosted the Pacific Tigers Friday at George Allen Field in their first home game since Sept. 3. Despite the extra 20 minutes of game time allowed by the two overtime periods, neither team managed a goal. The game ended in a scoreless draw, the second of its kind this season for the Tigers and the 49ers.

The Tigers' offense was not producing as they were out shot by The Beach 15-8 for the game and only four of their eight shot attempts were on goal.

It was the sixth shutout of the year for the 49ers. Goalie Tara Gotthardt now has five and a half shutouts, which ties a 49er school record.

"We played solid today, obviously I didn't have a whole lot of work to do today, which is good," Gotthardt said. "No nervous moments."

The 49ers generated scoring opportunities throughout the game. LBSU took seven shots after the first 90 minutes and 15 for the contest. Tigers' goalkeeper Jaime Souza was forced to make eight saves.

"We did everything but score, and that's really frustrating," 49ers' Head Coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. "We got stronger as the game went on. We finished really strong with some quality chances in the overtimes and toward the end of the game. We've just got to keep going, because it's just a matter of time when they're going to start falling in."

Sunday's competition was no less fierce then Friday's as the 49ers took on the current Big West leader Cal State Northridge Matadors.

It appeared the 49ers had managed to send the game into overtime when they scored a game-tying goal with under five minutes remaining, but not even two minutes had elapsed when LBSU's celebration quickly ceased as the Matadors fired the game winner into the net to make the score 2-1.

The 49ers struggled to find any offense for most of the game as they were out shot 11-5 by the Matadors.

With about seven minutes remaining, defender Natalie Messina came in at forward and energized the offense. In the 86th minute, Messina passed the ball off to midfielder Allison Wiegand who broke through the Matador defense and fired a goal at 85:56 to end the 498-minute scoreless streak for the Northridge defense, spanning six matches.

Wiegand's third goal of the season gave her 17 in her career and made her third all-time in goals scored for LBSU.

It did not take long for Northridge to answer. Less then two minutes after Wiegand's game-tying goal, Matador Brianna Monka found defender Ashley Augustein from 25 yards out.

Augustein fired in the game winner, at 87:16 to make it 2-1.

"We need to take what we did in the last 15 minutes of the game, bottle it and take it with us to our next game," Ingrassia said. "It was something special that we have been looking for all season."

The 49ers will take their final road trip of the season, to Utah State on Friday and Idaho on Sunday.