The Utah women’s soccer team had plenty of chances to score in Friday night’s game against Utah State, but fell short each time and eventually lost 2-0.
Despite putting up a good fight for most of the first half, and most of the second, each half the Aggies found a way to wear down the Utah defense to find the back of the net. Their first goal came in the 35th minute when Katie Flynn was able to knock in a ball assisted by Wesley Hamblin. Head coach Rich Manning said it was this play that sort of deflated the Utes right before halftime, something he did not expect to see from his team.
“Once we gave up the goal it kind of punctured us a little bit, probably more than I’d like and we didn’t do much the rest of the half,” Manning said. “That was the disappointing part, just it took a little bit out of ourselves.”
Manning does give credit to the Aggies’ players though because he thinks their outside players did a great job of catching up with the Utes any time they were starting to break away.
The second goal came in the 84th minute when U goalkeeper Lindsey Luke dove to save a shot, only to have it bounce off of her, allowing Utah State another opportunity when she could not get back on her feet quickly enough.
Taylor Slattery had five shots, one on goal for the Utes, and found it hard to see any positives from the game. She thinks the team coming out flat at the beginning of the game had a negative effect on their play and said part of the reason Utah State got that last goal was because the Utes were overlooking the little things.
“We need to come out harder and we need to match the intensity of the opponent,” Slattery said. “We just got to be on it, got to be able to finish.”
Utah had multiple chances to score within inches of the goal line, but USU’s goalkeeper Jeannie Woller did not let anything get by her. Slattery commended Woller’s game on Friday night, saying she could not have played better.
Regarding her personal game, Slattery needs to work on not panicking and keeping her cool, even in high pressure situations.
“We just need to calm down and have composure and finish our shots,” Slattery said.
Manning also agreed his team needs to focus on the task at hand and not let any outside noise bother them, but at the same time is not taking the loss as harshly as Slattery is. Manning is using this game as a another lesson for the team that they cannot let up at any moment.
“I think we’re still finding ourselves, but I think that it’s another reminder that you got to grind and you got to keep going,” Manning said. “We did a lot of good things today, the ball just didn’t seem to find the net.”
Overall, Utah had 27 shots, 13 of them on goal and although two goals did get past Luke, she had six saves on the night.
The Utes take the field again Sunday at 1 p.m. and will play Loyola Marymount before kicking off Pac-12 play next week.
@kbrenneisen