Beaver Soccer Report: Women Start Flawlessly, Men Split Two

Women’s Soccer

First-year head coach Matt Kagan has the OSU women’s soccer squad off to a flawless start.

The previous associate head coach at Mississippi State took over the Beavers program this past winter, immediately changing the program’s culture into that of one that can compete easily in the Pac-12. Now at 3-0, the team is off to their best start since 2015 and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

After an exhibition victory over British Columbia back in mid-August, the squad began the official 2019 season with a dominating 3-0 result on the road at Portland State on August 24th. In that contest, freshman Abby Schwartz found the net early off a header and the Beavers never looked back. We were also introduced to the new development of redshirt sophomore attacker McKenzie Weinert, who scored as well in the contest.

That set the team up for a pair of more challenging contests, when Villanova and Saint Mary’s visited Corvallis over the past weekend.

The Wildcats gave the Beavers all they could, as the team’s defense allowed their first goal of the campaign, while also being taken to double-overtime in the affair, However, it would against be Weinert, who would score the golden goal (and twice for the match) in the 100th minute, to push to the team to a thrilling 2-1 victory.

Riding their wave of emotion, OSU then trampled the Gaels on Sunday 3-0, out-shooting Saint Mary’s 18-5 in the content and without their opponent’s even registering a save in the contest. Overall, the Beavers have owned their foes by an 8-1 total scoring margin for their first three games.

What’s Next: The women will host New Mexico (1-2) on Thursday night. The Lobos stunned #22 Texas Tech to start their season, before dropping games to Portland and Washington in Seattle.

Men’s Soccer

On the men’s side of things, OSU hasn’t been quite as dominant, as the squad has split their first two games against a pair of solid opponents in Coastal Carolina and Colgate.

Friday night’s season opener against the Chanticleers looked to be going to plan, when midfielder Joel Walker found the net at the 32:02 mark. Yet, Coastal Carolina roared back with two scores in the second half and despite some late chances, OSU couldn’t find a way to break even. The Beavers were downed in their first contest of the 2019 campaign.

A quick turnaround for the men meant a Sunday game as well, this one coming against a Colgate group that looked ready to deal the Beavers a similar fate. Under five minutes into the game, OSU surrendered a penalty, allowing the Raiders to jump out to a quick 1-0 lead. However, this time the Beavers flipped the script, scoring two goals of their own at 30:28 and 85:59, the latter of the two and game-winner being finished by sophomore defender Alex Cover.

What’s Next: The men invite Davidson (1-0) to the friendly confines of Corvallis on Friday night. The Beavers look to be the favorites in that match-up, as the Wildcats needed an overtime period to hold off Wake Tech, a junior college, in their opener.