In what has become a familiar result as of late, Chico State Women’s soccer has tied for the fourth time in five games. They now stand at 1-0-4 after a 1-1 stalemate took them to two scoreless ten minute overtimes against California State University Los Angeles.
In the first half no team had any clear edge, shot attempts were nearly identical and neither team dominated the time of possession. That is until 38 minutes and ten seconds in when the Golden Eagles scored with a chip-shot from 18 yards out.
From then on Chico State was playing comeback for 21 minutes until senior Erin Woods curled a shot into the upper-left corner from 24 yards out from dead center in the 76th minute. That was all the offense either team could muster. Chico State had five shots combined in both overtimes, while failing to capitalize on two corner kicks.
“It’s frustrating. This was a tough one to lose,” Woods said. “Especially after the other ties. We just weren’t completing our crosses. We failed to capitalize on a lot of scoring opportunities.”
Out of 20 shots only six were on target and only one was a goal, and a failed conversion on a penalty kick really came back to haunt Chico State. Besides Erin Woods with her six shots and goal, the other notable performance was from goalkeeper Brenna Meier. Meier had seven saves in the game and allowed the one goal in the first period where the Wildcats were outshot 7-3.
“I wish I could punt just a little bit farther to get an assist,” Meier said about the lack of goal support. “Just supporting and being encouraging is all I can do, unfortunately. But maybe I should come out on a corner sometime? At the end of a game.”
The Wildcats have a chance to break their tie curse this Sunday at home. They take on the 0-3-1 CSU Dominguez Hills Toros at 11:30 a.m.
“It’s going to be a very physical, brutal game. They have a new coach and they’re just battlers,” Coach Kim Sutton said. “I don’t know much about them, but it’s the CCAA and every game’s a war.”
Ricardo Tovar can be reached at [email protected] or @rtovarg13 on Twitter.
