After an intense and fairly physical match-up, the Long Beach State 49ers tied the University of Oregon Ducks, 3-3, in double overtime Sunday afternoon at George Allen Field.
With two minutes remaining in regulation, senior Kim Silos stepped up big and delivered an improbable shot from 30 yards out with her right foot, which she normally doesn’t use.
“I was very composed,” Silos said. “There’s a lot of weight on our shoulders…[but] we know we can come back. This is a very tough team.”
In the first half, the 49ers (4-1-2) dominated play and masterfully controlled the ball, keeping their opponents’ defense working hard. After 31 minutes of play, senior Hayley Bolt headed in the first goal off of a pass from freshman Nicole Hubbard.
Oregon’s Teresa Bowns tied up the game, sending an unstoppable ball into the right corner of the net. With a tied game, the action did not let up. Merely two minutes had passed before a penalty kick was called for the 49ers and composed sophomore Lindsay Bullock put it away for a 2-1 lead.
Oregon (4-2-1) received a free kick just under two minutes after the last goal. Jen Stoltenberg sent the ball flying past senior keeper Breanna Truelove to tie the game at 2, making it four goals in a span of 12 minutes in a fast-paced tempo.
The second half was not nearly as kind to the 49ers. A spread and off-balance defense allowed Jessica Goodell to snake a shot into the lower right corner of the net, giving the Ducks their first lead of the game.
A rebuttal goal that was present in the first half was nowhere to be found. In the following minutes, the 49ers seemed to lose their steam. Opportunities were found to take shots, but no success. A free kick was awarded to LBSU but the shot sailed too high.
Tempers ran high and the game became increasingly more physical. Twelve minutes after the Ducks’ leading goal, LBSU’s Sahar Haghdan and Dani Oster of Oregon were entangled in a confrontation, which resulted in Oster delivering a fierce shove. However, only Haghdan received a yellow card.
“We attack together, we defend together,” Haghdan said of the team’s cohesion. “We play together as one.”
With two minutes left in the game, the precision and heart that the 49ers had embodied seemed deflated, until Silos’ late game-tying shot.
Head coach Mauricio Ingrassia felt that a “tie is a fair result for this game…at least for us,” and considering that Oregon is a Pac-10 team, a tie doesn’t seem too shabby. Ingrassia acknowledged his team “showed a lot of resiliency, a lot of heart,” something he said will prove pivotal in future games.
The 49ers return to action when they travel to play the University of Utah and Utah State on Sept. 19 and 21, respectively.