Beaver Soccer Report: Week 1

The Women’s Soccer season is underway, and the Men’s season is just about to start, so here’s your weekly roundup of everything that’s happening for both teams.

The Beaver Women got the season started on Friday when the Clemson Tigers came to town. Clemson started the game off on the attack, with 7 shots in the first half. New OSU goalie Brigette Skiba performed phenomenally, with 3 saves in the half, to keep Clemson off the scoreboards.

In the second half, the Beavers began to assert themselves, and managed 4 shots of their own. Clemson was just as aggressive as before, with 8 shots. With the minutes ticking down, it looked like the game would finish with a 0-0 tie, but Clemson finally broke through on a free kick in the 89th minute to take the 1-0 victory.

The following Sunday, the Beavers took on Stony Brook. In contrast to the game against Clemson, the Beavers were the team that set the offensive pace for much of the game. OSU took 12 shots in the first half, compared to Stony Brook’s 6, but couldn’t manage to find the goal, setting up another 0-0 halftime score.

Stony Brook was the first team to score in the 71st minute. The Beavers struck back quickly, with Kate Evans scoring off a beautiful free kick in 73rd minute for the Beavers first goal of the season.

OSU and Stony Brook took that 1-1 tie into extra time. Unfortunately for the Beavers, a handball gave Stony Brook a Penalty Kick, and they capitalized on it, taking the 2-1 victory.

An 0-2 start to the season is not how anyone wanted to get started, but there are some silver linings. Bridgette Skiba has looked awesome in goal, coming up with 12 saves so far this season. Kate Evans and Emily Wallerich have led the way on offense, creating a lot of opportunities for the Beavers.

The Beavers will get a chance for the first win of the year in Lincoln, Nebraska for the Nebraska Invitational this weekend. They take on Kansas on Friday, August 24th, and Nebraska on Sunday, August 26th. If you have a Big 10 Network Plus Subscription you can watch the game. Otherwise, you can follow along on the team’s twitter account.

The Men’s team gets their season started at home on Friday, August 24th. The Beavers will take on Syracuse. Following that, they’ll face Sacramento State on Monday, August 27th. Syracuse and Oregon State are in similar places, with both looking to for new players to fill the shoes of veterans, particularly their leading scorers. It will be an interesting game for both sides.

The game against Syracuse will be aired on the Pac-12 Networks.

That’s all for this week. Check back next week for more news on Beaver soccer.