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Women's Soccer Settles for Tie at San
Bernardino; Men Lose Crucial Game |
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Box Score (Women) It was a disappointing Friday
for Cougar soccer, as both teams traveled to San Bernardino to take
on the Coyotes. The
women came away with a 3-3 tie, while the men’s two-game win
streak was ended with a 3-1 loss. For the Cougar women, the tie
moves their record to 6-6-3 on the season.
It’s certainly not a bad result against a quality side like
CSUSB, and the team’s effort was exemplary as usual.
But the killer for Coach Ron Pulvers’ team was that they
held a 3-1 lead in the 89th minute, yet allowed two goals
in the final 1:48 of regulation and couldn’t score in overtime,
eventually settling for the tie. “We played great today,”
commented Pulvers. “We
just lost our legs at the end.
We put it to them in OT but couldn’t find the finish.” CSUSM came out on fire, scoring
all three of its goals within the first half hour of playing time.
Lucia Asbury, whose move from defender to forward has sparked
the team’s offense in the second half of the season, gave the
Cougars a 1-0 lead in the 9th minute.
Katelyn Krauss slipped her a nice pass, and Asbury was able
to shake her defender and beat the keeper. Taylor Ziencina, now recovered
from a potentially scary injury last week, would make it a 2-0 game
shortly after. In the
18th minute, Ziencina found some open space in the box,
and Courtney Drummond found her for a clean shot into the back of
the net. After CSUSB’s Krista Feer
closed the gap to 2-1 in the 27th minute, the Cougars
would immediately answer. They
pushed forward a strong attack, and eventually a CSUSB defender
inadvertently headed the ball into her own net, making it 3-1 CSUSM. The wild start would slow down,
and neither team would score for the next hour of game time.
But in the closing minutes, Feer would strike again with a
header off a free kick, making it 3-2.
A minute later, it was Coyotes’ Lynne Castillo knocking in
the equalizer. While the Cougars would respond
in overtime, nearly scoring on a few opportunities, CSUSB would hold
on for an unlikely tie. The
Cougars have two more chances to improve their playoff resume – at
Cal Poly this Sunday, and home against La Sierra next Sunday. For the Cougar men, however,
their newly-realized playoff hopes were effectively ended on Friday
with an ugly 3-1 loss. After
giving strong effort the last two games, the squad appeared to
revert back to its bad early-season tendencies against CSUSB. “We were never in the game,”
commented a dejected Coach Pulvers.
“I’m as frustrated as ever.
The team talked the talk in training, but we didn’t walk
the walk.” CSUSB’s Daniel Rodriguez
recorded a hat trick in getting the Coyotes out to a 3-0 lead
against the seemingly disinterested Cougar squad.
The Cougars’ lone goal came late from Daniel Vasquez.
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