The Long Beach State women’s soccer team finished a double overtime match against Wake Forest, which made it to last year’s Sweet Sixteen, in a 1-1 draw.
The 49ers (3-2-3) are coming off their second loss of the season with a 2-0 decision at BYU on Saturday. Less than 48 hours later, they faced Wake Forest (2-4-1) – one of last year’s Sweet Sixteen qualifiers – on George Allen Field.
Sophomore forward Mimi Rangel got the scoring started with a soft header right over the head of Wake Forest’s goalkeeper Lindsey Preston. LBSU freshman defender Kayla Lombardo delivered a ball into the box for Rangel to finish.
“I just knew one was going to come in,” Rangel said. “I didn’t know if it was going to be me or not, I just knew someone was going to finish the goal.”
It took the players on the field and on the bench several seconds to react, not realizing Rangel had scored. It was Rangel’s second goal of the season to go with her team-leading three assists.
The Demon Deacons responded with a wild sequence. The referee awarded a penalty, taken by Wake Forest defender Kim Marshall. After the penalty was blocked by 49ers’ sophomore goalkeeper Ashton McKeown, the ball bounced around in the box until a Wake Forest player went down. The referee awarded the Demon Deacons a second penalty. Marshall didn’t miss this time, tying the game at one.
LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia didn’t have much to say about the consecutive penalties awarded to Wake Forest, saying the officials saw two penalties, and they were just doing their jobs.
“They had a better look than I did,” Ingrassia said.
Rangel said she thought the physicality of the game got a little out of hand, but that her team wasn’t going to back down.
“They’re a more physical team,” Rangel said. “So right away our team was like ‘no, we’re not going to get knocked around.’ We’re smaller, but we got to fight back.”
Although he didn’t get the result he wanted, Ingrassia was pleased with his team’s play.
“I was proud [of] how we came out and took control of the game early,” Ingrassia said. “We made a couple tactical mistakes that they capitalized on, but our effort was tremendous. We had one day less of rest [and] had two flights in our system over the last two days. For us to come back and put together this performance shows a lot of heart.”