Sacramento State women’s soccer beat Northern Arizona, last year’s Big Sky champions, in their first conference game this season.
It was a hard-fought win, with only one goal on the board by Sac State’s junior forward and captain Abigail Lopez. This is Lopez’s third goal for the season.
The game started slowly; the Hornets had only four shots compared to their ten shots in the second period. Even though they had a hard time getting shots on goal, the Hornets found many chances to push back against the Lumberjacks.
Freshman midfielder Ellie Farber showcased her skills on both defense and offense. She was aggressive; charging the ball and finding every opportunity to intercept Lumberjack passes.
“We gave player of the game to Ellie Farber,” Sac State’s head coach Randy Dedini said. “She just won a ton of balls. She didn’t get a lot of shots, but she did so much defensive work. She was awesome.”
Farber also created the penalty kick that Lopez took to score the first and only goal of the game.
“I think the credit goes to Ellie,” Lopez said. “She did a lot of the work today, I just finished it. PKs are definitely a big pressure, but I practice them so much so it was kind of just an easy little pass to the net.”
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Farber wasn’t the only one who stood out in the Hornet’s upset victory. Senior goalkeeper Mia Shalit started her first game of the season and managed eight saves, including one close call that everyone thought had gone in.
“There were a couple of big-time saves in there,” Dedini said. “The one where she pushed it off the post and it came back, I thought it was going in. I mean, we’re talking a half an inch and that bounces in. I thought she did a great job.”
Halfway through the second period, the Hornets made an impressive series of shots within seconds of each other. Freshman forward Teysha-Rey Spinney-Kuahuia, junior forward Danna Restom and junior midfielder Ali Fuamatu-Ma’afala all got shots in as well as Farber and Lopez.
“I like taking people on and putting crosses in,” Restom said. “When I play I don’t really think about it, I just do it and after the fact [I think] ‘did I really just do that?’”
Beating a team like Northern Arizona is impressive, but it doesn’t come without hitting a few speed bumps. Just after their shooting frenzy, Spinney-Kuahuia and a Northern Arizona player rolled over the Lumberjack goalkeeper.
While there was no foul, Spinney-Kuahuia was carried off the field and was subbed out for junior forward Ariana Scholten for the duration of the match. Spinney-Kuahuia has been a strong player for the Hornets this season, scoring the second-most points on the team.
The Hornets were put to the test in the final minutes by one last push of Northern Arizona’s offense. Back-to-back corner kicks aren’t unheard of, but Sac State managed to derail four Lumberjack corner kicks in two minutes.
“It was a great first win for us,” Dedini said. “I thought we did what was necessary to win the game, but it wasn’t pretty.”
The Hornets face off at Northern Colorado on Sunday at 11 a.m.
