Photo by Shar Higa
With a lot of new faces wearing the black and gold, this year’s incarnation of the Long Beach State women’s soccer team had plenty of questions to address in their season-opening home game against Fresno State—and in an impressive 2-0 shutout win, they answered most of them, dominating play in the field and scoring off two well-executed set pieces. The win kicks off a challenging non-conference schedule that includes a long road trip, and a home game against UCLA next Sunday.
The 49ers had a sizable size advantage, as the Bulldogs had only two starters in the field over 5′ 6″, and they put it to good use, dominating the game inside the lines. Midfielder Lindsay Bullock put the time she spent in the weight room in the Spring to good use, winning every ball that came her way, and doing a great job muscling her way into position for the game’s first goal, heading in a perfectly-placed corner from Shawna Gordon in the game’s 13th minute.
Bullock said the fast start was important. “It’s the beginning of a new journey, so we wanted to go all out.”
Gordon, a sophomore, was the game’s most impressive player, and has clearly developed into one of the team’s leaders. She was vocal throughout, and directed traffic from the midfield expertly—nearly every time she got the ball on Fresno State’s side of the field, she created a scoring opportunity for the ‘Niners. The biggest downside to their game, and an ongoing problem for Long Beach State, was that there were significantly more opportunities than there were goals. There were too many extra touches in the Bulldog box, and generally a lack of an offensive killer instinct, despite the superb work to put the ball in scoring position—the ‘Niners took fifteen shots to the Bulldogs’ six.
Despite ten shots in the first half, the killing goal didn’t come until the game’s 70th minute, when Gordon put another perfectly-placed corner through the hands of Fresno State’s keeper. Emily Kingsborough, a sophomore starting her first game at keeper for Long Beach State, was perfect—though her defense made it easy on her, as she posted a zero-save shutout.
Head coach Mauricio Ingrassia was very happy with his team’s effort, although, he said, “We probably should have scored another goal. But we worked on the set pieces and it delivered.” While he would have liked to see his team put the Bulldogs away earlier, he said there was an upside for his young team. “It was good for us to be in a fight.”
He also praised Gordon’s play and leadership; the sophomore said she was much more comfortable on the field this year than she was last year in her first season. “We lost a lot of leaders last year, so we started coming together during Spring season.” As for having a boot in both goals, she said her mission is always to just “Try and get it in the mix.”
Gordon was in the mix all game, and if she, Bullock, and fellow midfielder Karina Camacho keep playing the way they did against Fresno State, they’ll have the ‘Niners there once again this season. They’ll face one of their biggest tests on August 30, against UCLA. “We just need to not give them too much respect,” said Bullock. “It’s our home field, and we want to defend it. We want to show them what Long Beach State is really all about.”