Beaver Soccer Report: Week 3

Welcome to our weekly check in with Oregon State Soccer! It was an exciting weekend for the Beavers, with both teams scoring some impressive results. Here’s what happened.

Last Friday, the Oregon State Women’s Team took on Gonzaga. As has happened a few times this season, the Beavers found themselves in an early hole, with the Bulldogs scoring goals in the fourth and ninth minute, for an early 2-0 lead.

The Beavers would find chances to get themselves on the scoreboard, but couldn’t capitalize in the first half. In the 18th minute, a shoot from Toni Malone sailed just over the cross bar; that was the closest the Beavers came to scoring in the first half.

In the 68th minute, Gonzaga added to their lead in the 68th minute to give Gonzaga a 3-0 lead. It looked like the Beavers were heading for their third straight 3-0 defeat, but Freshman Helena Brown found the net in the 88th minute to score her first goal as a Beaver. 3-1 would be the final from Lorenz Field, dropping the Beavers to 0-5.

The following Sunday the Women’s team took on Dartmouth. Oregon State’s defense stepped up early in this game, keeping the Big Green off the scoreboard despite some early aggression. Goalkeeper Bridgette Skiba came up with some amazing saves in the first half.

The Beavers brought the heat as well, out shooting Dartmouth 9-6, but Dartmouth’s defense refused to surrender a goal. The score remained 0-0 at halftime. In the second half, it was Dartmouth that took the offensive initiative, out shooting the Beavers 6-3. Skiba and the Beavers D held firm, and kept Big Green scoreless.

With the game still tied 0-0 at the end of regulation, both team’s prepared for extra time. Oregon State started hot, with McKenzie Weinert taking a shot in the 93rd minute that went high. Weinert came right back, and found the net with an assist from Ashleigh Fonsen, to give the Beavers the 1-0 win, and their first victory of the season.

With the win, the Beavers sit at 1-5. They’ll try to find their next win on Sunday, September 9th, when they travel to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech. That game will be aired on Fox Sports Go.

The Men’s team started their weekend off taking on Xavier. The first half was a defensive back and forth, with neither team finding many opportunities. Xavier slightly out shot the Beavers 3-2, but neither team looked dominant.

In the second half, the Beavers offense went high octane. Gloire Amanda and Eric Diaz took 5 shots and 4 shots respectively, and the team took 10 total. Unfortunately none of these found the net. Xavier took 2 shots of their own, but neither scored, and regulation finished 0-0.

Oregon State once again dominated the shot count in extra time, but once again could not convert those shots into points. OSU took 7 shots in overtime, to Xavier’s 1, but the game ended in a frustrating 0-0 tie.

The following Monday, Oregon State travelled to State College to take on Penn State in their first road contest of the season.

The Beavers had a handful of scoring chances early in the game, but in the 24th minute Freshman Carlos Moliner broke through, for his first goal as a Beaver, and gave OSU a 1-0 lead.

After that, the Beavers’ defense just about shut down Penn State. The Nittany Lions had 7 shots over the course of the game, but none of them were on goal.

The Beavers had a few chances to add to their lead, particularly some beautiful shots from Gloire Amanda, but none found the net. Still, the one early goal from Moliner was enough to insure the victory, 1-0.

After last weekend, the Beaver Men stand at 2-1-1. This weekend, they’ll host USC Bakersfield on Friday, September 7th at 7:00 PM PT. Then, on Monday, September 10th, they’ll take on UC Davis at 7:00 PM PT, once again at Lorenz Field. You can follow along with the action on the Beavers’ twitter account.

With both teams now with wins, the season is really starting to heat up. Check back next week for more soccer coverage.