The Long Beach State women’s soccer team snapped its two-game losing streak Friday as it toppled Ivy League foe Princeton by a score of 3-1 at George Allen Field.
Despite the lopsided outcome, the game didn’t start off too well for The Beach (3-2-0), which were without starting defender Alex Balcer. Balcer was forced to sit out the game after receiving a red card in LBSU’s previous match. Shannon Bullock started in her place.
The Tigers (0-1-0) capitalized after an early free kick for Long Beach turned into a break away opportunity for Princeton forward Jen Hoy. Hoy took a pass from Sara Chehrehsa and chipped in a goal in the 12th minute over ‘Niners goalkeeper Kaitlyn Gustaves.
The ‘Niners star forward Nadia Link didn’t waste any time responding to the early deficit. Link powered the ‘Niners attack, with her first goal coming in the 19th minute.
The goal was a well-placed left-footed strike from the left side of the field that flew over Princeton goalkeeper Claire Pinciaro that barely caught the top-right corner of the net.
“We came off of a bad weekend and that needed to change,” Link said. “I think personally, I wanted to set the tone for the team, and we picked it up a little bit, especially from last weekend.”
The Beach has been used to being down early this season, and head coach Mauricio Ingrassia was not surprised by the way his team responded after giving up an early goal.
“I feel we did fine,” Ingrassia said. “We’ve given up the first goal in four out of the first five games, and so its something that we’ve been talking about and it’s not new. They responded very well.”
When the halftime buzzer sounded, the ‘Niners and the Tigers were deadlocked at a score of 1-1. Coach Ingrassia had a simple message for his team going into the second half.
“We just focused on all the positives, and gave Shannon Bullock some confidence, because obviously she’s a brand new player on defense,” Ingrassia said. “We talked about some of the good things we were doing, and focused on resiliency and getting back to who we are.”
Ingrassia continued: “I felt that we lost a little bit of our identity at the beginning of the game.”
Link even echoed her head coach’s halftime speech.
“We needed to pick up our energy a bit, we needed to calm down, and play our game,” she said.
The second of Link’s two goals came shortly after the second half began.
Link side-stepped a defender, and blasted another left-footed shot over Pinciaro into the middle of the net to put The Beach up 2-1.
The goal marked Links’ fourth of the season — all of which have come in LBSU’s last three matches. Link was held scoreless through the ‘Niners first two contests.
LBSU forward Jazz Strozier added an insurance goal in the 78th minute that put The Beach on top 3-1 and all but sealed the victory. Defender Jenny Soza assisted on the goal after she made a beautiful run into space, and fired a pass right into Strozier’s feet. Strozier controlled the pass, turned right and gave a swift strike with her left foot from six yards out that skipped passed the Tigers’ goalkeeper into the bottom right corner of the net.
The Beach will look to continue its winning ways Sunday against Hawaii at George Allen Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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