The San Diego State women’s soccer team wrapped up the week with another conference win, taking a 3-1 decision against Colorado College, extending their unbeaten streak to seven on Sunday, Oct. 1 at the SDSU Sports Deck.
The Aztecs (8-2-2, 3-0-1 Mountain West Conference) dominated most of the first half. SDSU earned five corners and had a handful of shots on goal in the first 17 minutes before taking the lead. Midfielder Denise Castro got fouled inside the box and was awarded a penalty, which defender Kiera Utush took and scored on to put the Aztecs up 1-0 in the 17th minute.
However, the Aztecs couldn’t find the back of the net again before halftime despite taking 13 shots and 10 corners.
The second half started off differently as Colorado College (1-9-1, 1-3-0) seemed to find their rhythm and managed to equalize in the 57th minute. During an attack by the Tigers, SDSU was whistled for handling the ball inside the 18-yard box, awarding a penalty kick. Forward Lily Byrne successfully converted to tie the game at 1-1.
Even though the Tigers came back to tie the game, Utush was not worried.
“Obviously, it was an unfortunate call and mistake on what just happened, but I think our response was very good and I was very confident in my team on winning that game because we had so many chances,” Utush said. “It was a little bump that we just took and swallowed and kept going.”
SDSU did respond, as they piled on more attacks in search of a goal to take the lead again, with five shots on goal in a 10-minute span.
Their hard work finally paid off in the 70th minute. Castro found forward Emma Gaines-Ramos just outside the 6-yard box, who sneaked one into the bottom right of the net and gave the Aztecs the lead back 2-1.
The Aztecs scored another goal less than three minutes later. Midfielder Alexys Ocampo scored her first goal of the season, assisted by Gaines-Ramos to give the Aztecs a 3-1 lead with less than 18 minutes remaining.
The Scarlet and Black would control the rest of the game without scoring more. SDSU finished with 32 shots in the game, which was the most they had since 2016. Out of the 32 shots, 18 were shots on goal and 15 were saved.
Despite so many chances created, there were only three goals scored. Head coach Mike Friesen talked about the danger of not putting the game away.
“We should probably score more than just three, so (I was) a little bit disappointed about how we handled the first half after we went up, not just pushing the game forward to end it,” he said. “And I think in this conference if you let teams in the game long enough something will happen.”
He also praised how the team responded to the game being tied.
“(I) loved their response to that, they’re just calm, keep doing what we’re doing, creating chances and finding a way to win games,” Friesen said. “That’s special about this team is that they can find ways to win games.”
With this 3-1 win, the Aztecs are now tied with Boise State for first place in the Mountain West Conference, whom they will play on Thursday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. on the SDSU Sports Deck.
Utush said that it doesn’t matter who they play against as long as they play to their strength — they are unstoppable and what playing at home meant for the team.
“I think just coming out with the mentality of this is our home and this is our field and we’re not going to let anyone come and prove us that, you know, we’re not on top,” Utush said.
