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Injuries have been the story of the 2024 Long Beach State women’s soccer season and it’s only the first week.
The Beach lost its All-Big West Conference center back Brooklyn Antonucci to a preseason injury, and then a head injury knocked fellow star defender Julia Moore out of the season opener against No. 11 UCLA on Thursday night at George Allen Field.
When the dust settled at halftime the Bruins were up 3-0, but that would end up being the final score because LBSU regrouped and played a much better second half despite being short handed.
“We were just unorganized in the first half, we had to adjust and play some players who had their first college minutes (tonight) and it took the first half to get back in the locker room and organize us a little bit,” LBSU coach Mauricio Intrassia said. “I told them if they could stick together and communicate that we would be a better team in the second half. We’ll take it.”
UCLA outshot LBSU 18-3 for the game but only 5-2 in the second half. Liz Worden, Jordan Candelaria and Malta Johnson had the shots for the Beach. The freshman Johnson nearly scored from distance after coming off the bench in the second half. Fellow freshman substitutes Kailey Supa and Grace Caldwell also played well in their debuts.
“We kept our composure and (were) getting into our groove,” Worden said of the second half. “It’s not easy going down 3-0 and we never let that get our heads down and we kept pushing.”
UCLA immediately took advantage of Moore leaving the game as Emma Egizii (13’) and Bridgette Marin-Valencia (15’) scored rebound goals for the Bruins. Egizii scored again in the 40th minute after dribbling through the heart of the LBSU defense.
“One thing they’re really good at is how dynamic their midfield is,” LBSU midfielder Makayla Demelo said. “If you take your eyes off them for one second they’re in another place… (At halftime we said) that the first half happened, we can’t do anything about that, it’s about how we show up for the second half. It takes a lot for a team that just got three goals scored on them to come out like we did. It took the older players on the team to say, ‘We have to pick it up, this is our home field,’ and we had to come with a different mentality.”
Ingrassia said he was pleased with the good character his team showed after halftime. He also praised forward Kassandra Ceja for her ability to read the complex movement of the UCLA backline.
“When it gets too quiet on the field we start to lose each other a little bit,” Demelo said of her team’s communication. “It’s keeping each other accountable and motivated and I think we’re going to go far this year if we just keep doing that.”
“Hopefully we can build off of this and get some more offense,” Ingrassia added.
LBSU visits University of San Diego on Sunday before hosting Santa Clara and BYU next week.
