The Long Beach State women’s soccer team opened its season in dramatic fashion by beating Arizona 2-1 in overtime thanks to a golden goal by forward Ashley Roese.
Assisted by midfielder Eileen Maes, Roese scored a long-overdue goal three minutes into the first overtime, leading the 18th-ranked 49ers to their first victory of the season.
“All of the forwards, we all had our opportunities, so it was only a matter of time before one of us put one in,” Roese said.
The ‘Niners (1-0-0) knocked on the door several times before finally scoring. In the 73rd minute, preseason All-American forward Nadia Link took a shot off the crossbar and in the 84th minute, Roese put too much on a ball from 15 yards out and struck it well over the goal.
“We came out and our mentality was, we’re going to win,” Link said. “We were just going to keep pushing forward and we missed a few chances, but that comes with not having too many games under our belt.”
The opening-game rust was certainly evident, as a lack of flow and rhythm in the 49er midfield led to an Arizona goal and several scoring opportunities for the Wildcats (0-1-0). Had it not been for the outstanding play of freshman goalkeeper Marrina Meyers, Arizona may have emerged with the win.
“Marrina played very well today,” head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “This was her first collegiate game ever. She won the game for us, at least in the first half.”
In the 33rd minute, Meyers blocked a penalty kick and the subsequent comeback attempt, preventing what would have been a 1-0 Arizona lead at the time. Meyers made six saves overall, all of them on shots by Arizona forward Jazmin Ponce, who scored the Wildcats’ lone goal in the 56th minute.
The 49ers’ first goal came in the 45th minute, when defensive captain Alex Balcer scored on a free kick from just short of midfield. She delivered a strike 40 yards out that hooked toward the net, took one bounce and sailed over the Arizona goalkeeper into the back-right corner of the net.
The 49ers held a 1-0 lead until Ponce scored eleven minutes later. That’s when things started to get a bit tense for Ingrassia.
“It’s a scary game when it’s one-one in the second half,” he said. “I just felt that our feel was off, flow-wise and defensively…we were reading things late so they were able to have their heads up and pick us apart.”
Eventually the 49er forwards came through and earned LBSU its first win of the season, as well of some validation of the preseason hype that has followed the Big West favorites.
“I feel like this was a really important result for us,” Link said. “Technically we hadn’t earned anything yet, but today we earned our first win.”
LBSU has a week off to practice and watch film before returning to George Allen Field for a night game against Saint Francis on Friday.