If you wanted a synopsis of the Long Beach State women’s soccer 2009 campaign, all you had to do was watch the second half of yesterday’s 2-0 loss to Cal State Fullerton at George Allen Field. Bad breaks, missed opportunities and no offensive goals have been the ear marks these past few months as this young team takes their lumps.
“That one was tough… we let the momentum slip,” said coach Mauricio Ingrassia. “Sometimes the ball just doesn’t want to go in… that’s just soccer.” It’s been that way since starting Big West play in which they’ve been outscored 7-3. Long Beach has been held scoreless in five of those seven matches.
The first half yesterday was relatively even, but bad breaks for the Beach started early when forward Kristen Kiefer chased a bouncing ball into the Fullerton box in the fifth minute. Titan goalkeeper Jordan Santos charged hard and missed the ball, crashing directly into Kiefer, but no penalty kick was awarded.
After they went to the half scoreless, the 49ers looked like the more aggressive team, out-shooting Fullerton 13-6 and earning eight corner kicks to the Titans’ two. However, one corner was all it took for Fullerton to take the lead, as Claudia Munoz and Stacey Fox connected in the 56th minute. Munoz sent a line drive into the box, and Long Beach goalkeeper Emily Kingsborough tried to cut in front of the Titan attack like a football defensive back going for the interception. But she was a fingernail away from deflecting it, and Fox put it in the netting with one touch.
It seemed karma was paying attention in the 62nd minute when Long Beach was awarded a penalty kick after Lindsay Bullock was taken down hard in the box. Karina Camacho took the PK and sent a hard shot to the bottom right corner, but Santos guessed right and deflected it wide.
That play, combined with about a half dozen other quality scoring opportunities, is proof yet again that this young squad is good enough to hang with almost any team in the nation, but they just can’t finish. Fullerton did finish this day with a dagger goal in the 70th minute when Christina Murillo netted an unassisted laser that deflected off the near post and into the goal.
“We went down swinging,” said Ingrassia of the Long Beach effort. “We’ve had our share of success recently and this team is still so young… this is learning.”
Long Beach still has a sliver of hope to make the Big West Tournament, but it’s going to take some magic. A magic that has avoided this team almost all season.