On Friday, Oct. 14, Utah soccer took on Washington State at Ute Field. For the majority of the game, neither team managed to score, but late in the game, the Utes got a goal over WSU, took a 1-0 victory over the Cougars, their third straight shutout of the season and their ninth overall.
“I thought it was a tale of two halves,” said head coach Rich Manning. “We were on our heels a bit in the first half. Washington State had a lot of momentum, but we were hard to score on, and in the second half we were super aggressive. I was proud of the team. The second half was one of the better halves of the season.”
Washington State started the game on an aggressive note, taking multiple shots on goal against the Utes, but sophomore goalkeeper July Mathias denied them all. While the first half saw more effort from WSU, Utah picked up its game in the second half.
Later in the second half, sophomore Hailey Skolmoski saw a chance against her opponents, and she scored the winning goal of the game. For Skolmoski, this was the fourth game she has scored in for her team, and it was her 11th goal of the season.
“I thought that the first half wasn’t our best, but we pulled it out in the second half, and we came out with a really great win,” Skolmoski said. “We played some good soccer, and I’m just happy with our performance in the second half.”
For the rest of the game, it was up to Mathias to to deny WSU getting a goal or taking the lead against the Utes, and by the final buzzer, Utah had taken another shutout victory.
According to Skolmoski, her team is the underdog right now, but since they are coming off of some big wins, she thinks the most important things for her team to do is carry the energy back on the road.
“These next two games are going to be big against some really good teams,” Skolmoski said. “So I think the most important thing is energy.”
Up next for the Utes, they will be traveling to California to compete against Cal and Stanford on Thursday (Oct. 20) and Sunday (Oct. 23), respectively.
“We just want to keep getting better and growing,” Manning said. “Those are some tough challenges, but that is why we do this. We love playing in tough meets, and we are going to play two really good teams and test ourselves.”
Kickoff on Thursday is set to begin at 3:00 p.m and on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
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