Sports

Grit of LBSU soccer put to test

The game appeared to be all but over.

Then Kim Silos’ shot with her opposite foot injected life back into the Long Beach State women’s soccer team, and provided the final goal of Sunday’s 3-3 tie.

Doing the photography for the game, I had the closest view from behind the Oregon goal. My eyes widened in stunned disbelief.

Hearing Silos admit it wasn’t even her stronger foot she scored with made it that much more remarkable.

Head coach Mauricio Ingrassia used words like “resilient” when describing his team’s performance, which is about as accurate a description there is.

For a while the team seemed deflated.

The 49ers doubled the Ducks’ shot total, 20-10 — including 7-3 in the second half.

Oregon goalkeeper Cody Miles stopped shot after shot — finishing with nine for the game — as LBSU sent a relentless attack to the goal.

The Ducks were still leading, 3-2, in the 65th minute. The 49ers were still denied approaching the 75th minute.

It wasn’t until around the 86th minute did LBSU regain control of the ball and make one final charge down the field.

Miles and the defense watched a fury of 49ers fire shot after shot, trying to keep the game alive and send it into overtime.

Snapping away, hoping to get a shot of the tying goal — which I didn’t end up capturing — part of me started to think the game was over.

Looking through the viewfinder of the camera, it was tough to tell where the ball was bouncing and who was firing the shots.

Then came Silos’ blast from 30 yards out in the 88th minute and the crowd at George Allen Field suddenly roared in unison.

Two words quickly came to mind, one of which was “holy.” I’ll let you guess what the next word was, and it wasn’t “water.”

Games like that may read as a draw in the boxscore, but the look on the faces of the 49er players after the horn sounded in double overtime did not read disappointment.

Ingrassia credited his team’s effort, especially against a formidable Pac-10 opponent.

The thought process in my mind is still one of utter shock three days later.

The same can probably be said about the Oregon players.

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