The Cougs (7-5-6) beat the Oregon State Beavers 1-0 on Wednesday, taking home back-to-back victories for just the second time this season.
WSU continues to get results on thin margins, getting their fifth one-goal win of the season. With Wednesday’s result, the Cougs have outscored their opponents by just one goal in the entire season.
Both teams entered the match looking for a positive result at a critical point in the season. After starting the season 2-6, OSU has turned its season around in conference play going 5-2-2. The experienced Beavers side played themselves into a tie for first place in the WCC standings heading into the matchup with WSU. WSU on the other hand found itself in the middle of the standings and five points out of first place, needing a string of victories to make a real threatening move toward the top.
While playing with a losing record, OSU came out with a fiery attack, seeking the vaunted top spot in the conference. The Beavers outshot the Cougs 5-1 in the first 20 minutes, including three shots that forced saves from WSU goalkeeper Nadia Cooper. Senior forward Carly Carraher was behind three of those early shots from the Beavers, including two on goal.
Over about the next 15 minutes of play, WSU would quickly even the playing field on the offensive end. By halftime, the shot totals had evened to 7-7, with a variety of Cougs getting in on the action. Two of the Cougs’ shots were on target, but neither of them truly challenged Beavers goalie Mya Sanchez. Out of five saves between the two keepers, none required significant movement out of position, signaling a struggle to execute from both offenses.
A much-needed breakthrough came for WSU though in the 36th minute. Defender Alena Watts gave a go-ahead ball to midfielder Julianna Duckett at midfield who sprinted to about ten yards outside the goalie box. Duckett then fed overlapping forward Rajanah Reed a through ball where she took a shot one-on-one with Sanchez that was saved by her backfoot. The deflection landed at a trailing Duckett’s feet though and she finished it off of Sanchez into the back of the net. Duckett, a fifth-year Pepperdine transfer, played what is likely to be her second-to-last game as a Coug. She notched her second goal of the year after not scoring since a late August match against Idaho. WSU head coach Todd Shulenberger said that the team controlled the game throughout and he praised the effort on the goal-scoring possession.
“It’s a great build up you know, back to front with the midfield,” Shulenberger said. “And again [Reed] had a great final pass there and a shot on goal that ricocheted out and [Duckett] was composed to knock it in there. So you know will take it, goals have been hard to find this year at times but I really do like the way we are playing and this team keeps fighting until the end.”
The Cougs rode out the rest of the half in control, leaving unscathed and with all the momentum after Duckett’s breakthrough. Fortunately for WSU, this momentum would carry throughout the rest of the match, as the Coug offense turned up the heat in the second half.
Starting early in the half, the Cougs had two shots and two corner kicks in the 51st minute. After putting the pressure on deep in the Beaver half, WSU capped off the attacking sequence with a defender Jenna Studer shot that barely missed over the crossbar from right outside the six-yard box after being completely unmarked on the set piece.
Even with the momentum in their favor, the Cougs nearly let the equalizer slip past them in the 61st minute. The Beavers delivered a corner that knocked off a crowd of players and the ball bounced with backspin toward the goal. Just before the ball crossed the goal line, midfielder Lindsey Turner pinned the ball against the post with her chest before it rolled away and was cleared out of play. Turner, who was covering the near post was at the right place at the time, stopping the Beaver’s last true threat of the match.
The attacks kept on coming in the 67th minute after forward Kendall Campbell drew a foul near the right corner spot on a counterattack. On the free kick from midfielder Reagan Kotschau, Studer again came in and delivered a line-drive header that knocked off the crossbar and into a crowd of attackers and defenders. After finally being cleared to the top of the box, midfielder Megan Santa Cruz put in one final attempt on the possession, but the shot sailed over the crossbar.
Campbell would get another opportunity in the 80th minute when she stole the ball in the OSU box after a defender miscue. She let a shot loose when Sanchez slid past her, but OSU defender Hayden Wilson got there last second to save the Beavers from a 2-0 deficit.
The Beavers struggled to gain any significant offensive momentum throughout the half, as the Cougs continued to exert pressure, forcing OSU to focus on the WSU offensive rather than its own. The Beavers only shot on goal of the entire half came in the 55th minute after Cooper punched out a corner kick and midfielder Rin Choi sent a routine ground shot back to Cooper.
WSU finished the half outshooting the Beavers 11-2 and doubled their opponent’s shot total for the whole game. The Cougs moved up to a tie for fifth place in the standings and are just three points shy of a tie for first in points in the conference. The Cougs would not have a head-to-head advantage over Pepperdine if they win in their final match, meaning they would have to beat the goal differential of Santa Clara or any other team that gets to the top.
While Duckett scored the goal, Clark was the centerpiece of the counterattack for WSU as she had five total shots. Cooper led the defense, earning her seventh clean sheet of the year and moving to a third-place tie in program history with that result. Senior Grayson Lynch’s one-shot attempt on the night also allowed her to crack the top 10 of the school’s total shots list.
For the Beavers offense, Carraher proved to be the most active with four shots, two of which came on goal. Sanchez matched Cooper in the net in terms of saves with four.
WSU will take on Pacific in its final matchup of the season for senior night at Lower Soccer Field on Saturday.
