Soccer, Sports, Women's Sports

Long Beach State loses heartbreaker to Cal State Fullerton

With the bright lights on Titan Stadium in Fullerton, both Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton looked to make a statement in the Big West conference.

The 49ers (6-6-2) lost to the Titans (6-8) 1-0 after senior goalkeeper Ashton McKeown mishandled a shot that ended up being an own goal in the 17th minute.

“We kind of got unlucky in the first half so we knew we had to bring it on in the second half,” freshman forward Kaitlin Fregulia said. “We kept attacking, attacking –, unfortunately we couldn’t [score]..”

The first half seemed to favor the Titans after they got on the scoreboard and controlled the pace of the game.

In typical Big West fashion, the game was very aggressive as there was a total of 21 fouls, four yellow cards and one red card.

While the lone goal proved to be the backbreaker for LBSU, the defense fought to keep the team in the game while not allowing a shot by CSUF in the final 42 minutes.

“We figured out the game plan — what we needed to do to go forward and we did it,” head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said.

Heading into the second half, the 49ers came out of the locker room with a sense of urgency.

Long Beach had more opportunities with the flow of the game in that half, with 11 shots to Fullerton’s one.

“We worked pretty hard,” Fregulia said. “ It’s just unfair we couldn’t put one in the back of the net. We have to focus it can’t stop here we have a lot more games on the road.”  

The 49ers are now 2-1-1 in conference and will play their next three games away starting with Hawai’i on Oct. 14, UC Davis Oct. 21 and UC Riverside Oct. 27.
“We’re going to bounce back there’s no excuse,” senior midfielder Mimi Rangel said. “It’s a tough loss for sure but we have to look forward to the next games we have it’s not over.”

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