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The results aren’t coming against Top 25 opponents, but Long Beach State women’s soccer has shown great resilience against top teams like No. 11 Santa Clara on Thursday night at George Allen Field.
After falling behind by two goals in the second half, the Beach battled back and cut that lead in half with 25 minutes to play but fell short in a 2-1 loss.
“We fought,” LBSU coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “Obviously it was a very talented team we just played. We competed, that’s important. Everything else will come, but we competed.”
The same was true in the second opener against No. 6 UCLA last Thursday as the Beach went toe-to-toe with the Bruins despite trailing for most of the game.
“We’re playing very talented teams so we know that it’s not always going to go our way and we need to respond,” LBSU senior Kassandra Ceja said. “We can’t control what they do but we can control how we respond.”
Santa Clara bossed the opening minutes by switching play and being patient. The Broncos had three shots and a pair of corner kicks in the first five minutes. However, LBSU goalkeeper Aurora Schuck and her defense led by freshman center back Grace Caldwell weathered the storm until the 40th minute.
Kennedy Schoennauer came off the Santa Clara bench and changed the game as a target forward. Five minutes before halftime, she got open at the edge of the box and turned quickly on a sharp pass from Lucy Mitchell to send home the opening goal for a 1-0 halftime lead.
In the 56th minute, Schoennauer chased down a long ball over top and took advantage of an LBSU miscue to poke home her second goal for a 2-0 lead.
LBSU transfer Liz Worden and Ceja teamed up in the 66th minute to get one back. Worden sent a cross into the box for Ceja to collect, but she drew the contact and a penalty kick.
“I know Liz is going to beat her player and I just needed to get into the box,” Ceja said. “We have been working on that all week. I saw the defender wasn’t even looking at the ball, she was looking at me, so I knew that if I could just get some contact in there, and the ref was a good ref, I knew that she would see it. If she tackled me I might as well go down.”
LBSU defender Julia Moore calmly converted the penalty kick in her first game back since suffering a head injury against UCLA.
The Beach looked dangerous while chasing the equalizer, and in the 81st minute Caldwell sent a perfect ball over the top for Worden. She beat her defender to the ball but a heavy first touch was just enough for Santa Clara goalkeeper to come off her line and collect it. Two minutes later, Worden found an open Moore at the edge of the box but the Broncos defense deflected her shot wide.
Schuck made eight saves for the Beach.
LBSU (1-2) hosts No. 4 BYU on Saturday at 4 p.m.
