Seven wins in a row, including a 12 straight unbeaten streak, were extended on Sunday thanks to a double overtime goal by defender Abbie Jones with six minutes left on the clock. The goal came courtesy of a corner kick from Korie Bozart who found Jones streaking towards the net.
“I just happened to be the corner taker and I saw Abbie coming in to the post and like she says, she always comes in a little late,” Bozart said. “If I put it back there someone is going to get a hit on it and she did and she scored.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ke3eLxSrEE
Jones has played in every game so far, but in her 12th game she scored her first goal of the season. On the goal Bozart picked up her fourth assist on the year.
Although at the end of regulation the score was tied, Chico was leading in almost every single category including shots, shots on goal and corners.
The Wildcats didn’t allow a single shot on goal after halftime with a help from a few adjustments according to coach Kim Sutton.
“It starts with the frontline pressing the ball because if you don’t press the ball everyone has to drop,” Sutton said. “You have to shrink the field defensively and if you can’t press the ball at all you don’t eliminate any of the field, it’s a too big of a field to defend.”
Bozart agreed with her coach saying it was the high-press specifically that helped them after the half.
“Going into the second half, we all decided that we wanted to high-press them and once we did that they didn’t really have much options going into our half,” Bozart said. “So we high-pressed them a lot and got a lot of opportunities.”
These opportunities took the pressure off of goalkeeper Brenna Meier who finished the game with three saves, all of them coming in the first half. Meier’s play would receive praise from her coach and teammates.
“She made some really good decisions today about not coming and making the easy save,” Sutton said.
Bozart echoed her coach’s praises of Meier but added that her communication is what has helped as of late.
“In the first five minutes she came up with a great save, which was amazing,” Bozart said. “She’s really stepped it up, talks a lot in the back, really focuses on our backline and keeping us connected. I think she’s doing really well this season.”
Meier’s first save of the day was a momentum boost for the Wildcats and set the team on the right track to victory.
The Chico State women’s soccer team will look to extend their winning and unbeaten streaks on the road against Stanislaus State on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 4:30 p.m.
Andrew Baumgartner can be reached at [email protected] or @abaum94 on Twitter.
