POMONA - The Cal Poly Pomona women's soccer team produced two incredible goals and turned a stellar first half into a 4-2 triumph over Cal State LA in a non-conference meeting of California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) foes at Kellogg Stadium on Saturday evening.
The result improves the Broncos to 3-2, including a two-game sweep of non-league activity against their area CCAA rivals Cal State San Bernardino and now CSULA. The Golden Eagles are left still searching for their first win of 2021, at 0-5-1.
The home side registered a 10-4 shot advantage over a strong first 45 minutes, with seven of those attempts on target. From that haul, CPP found the back of the net three times, and even apart from the seven shots on frame, it got turned away by the crossbar twice.
Elise Garcia got the scoring going at the 17:57 mark with an absolute banger and a Goal of the Year candidate for Cal Poly Pomona. The senior sent in a left-sided corner kick, with a direct, one-touch clearance by the Cal State LA defense. The ball bounded right to the edge of the 18-yard box on Garcia's side of the field, and she hammered a first-timed, right-footed shot that hit the crossbar and then the inside of the right post before bulging the net for her first collegiate goal, unassisted.
Taylor Scott doubled the advantage in the 29th minute, with the rare goalkeeper assist going to
Sydney Williams, the first of her career, as two more seniors decided to join CPP's Goal of the Year conversation. Williams launched her goalie kick more than three-quarters of the way down the field, probably about 70 yards, with the ball bouncing once on its way inside the penalty area, and Scott running onto it and deftly lifting a one-touch header up and over the Golden Eagle goalie for 2-0.
A mere 2:23 later, however, Cal State LA had pulled one back, as freshman Liliana Gonzalez came off the bench for her first college goal.
Just before halftime at 40:50, Cal Poly Pomona was able to regain its two-goal lead, with junior
Gillian Ortin providing the first score of her career and a first assist going to true freshman
Jaclyn Cuevas.
To their credit, the Golden Eagles did not go down quietly from there, and the visitors got right back into it again through a penalty-kick goal at 69:24. Like Gonzalez, Shelby Melin was the true freshman reserve who stepped up to convert on the try.
It was Scott who finally ended the drama, as the unanimous 2019 All-West Region First Team selection completed her fourth career two-goal brace with a little more than six minutes remaining in the contest. The unassisted strike gave the Santa Clarita product back-to-back two-goal performances against Cal State LA.
The two first-half bar shots for CPP belonged to
Phoebe Amaro and
Cassie Snow in the third and seventh minutes, respectively, ahead of the scoring. Snow, in her first start of the year, provided game and career highs of seven shots and five shots on goal. She also forced a defensive clearance off the line on an 11th-minute attempt following a corner kick.
The visitors actually almost jumped on the scoreboard first as only 21 seconds in, Erin Schrock took a shot after a well-worked sequence up the middle, but Williams made the easy catch.
Williams wound up with three saves in goal for Cal Poly Pomona. Redshirt freshman Olivia Spanish had three stops in the first half for the Golden Eagles. True freshman Areli Reyes then took over and was credited with three saves of her own. The final shot tally was 15-7 in favor of the Broncos, with six corner kicks to two by the opposition.
CPP finally wraps up this season-long four-game home stand, as well as its six-game non-league slate, this Monday night, Sept. 27, against Biola (2-3-1). The primetime kickoff inside Kellogg Stadium is set for 6 p.m.
All Bronco soccer contests throughout this 2021 season will stream live online free of charge via the CCAA Network at
www.ccaanetwork.com. Fans may also download the CCAA Network app on your iOS or Android smartphone, tablet, or through web streaming devices such as Amazon Fire, Roku or Apple TV. Admission is free for CPP students, staff and faculty.
Bronco Bits: Cal Poly Pomona is now 38-29-12 (.557) overall under sixth-year head coach and 2019 CCAA Coach of the Year
Jay Mason ... CPP used a third different starting 11, with
Cassie Snow drawing her first start of the season up top for
Emma Barrow, who had begun each of the first four contests, and
Nicolle Villarreal earning her first collegiate start in place of
Allyssa Larkin ... Barrow and Larkin both missed their first match of 2021 ...
Alyssa Carthan and
Taylor Scott each began their 26th consecutive games, with Scott now at 28 appearances in a row ...
Sydney Williams has drawn 21 straight starts in goal ...
Phoebe Amaro matched her single-game career highs of three shots and one shot on goal ... CPP reached double figures in shots on goal (11) for the second time this year, having generated 14 against its other CCAA rival, CSUSB, in the Sept. 2 opener ... The Broncos are 3-1-2 against the Golden Eagles with Mason at the helm, including a still-unbeaten 2-0-2 in Pomona, and 24-11-8 in the all-time series (13-4-6 at home) ... Most recently, CPP had topped CSULA, 3-1, at home in a first-round match of the CCAA Tournament on Nov. 12, 2019, behind another Scott brace and
Jillian Erwin goal, all in the first half ... The 2019 regular-season meeting was played to a scoreless deadlock, also in Pomona, on Oct. 20, with Williams playing all 110 minutes for the individual shutout ... This year's league showdown will take place at Cal State LA's University Stadium to conclude the regular season on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 2 p.m. ... Cal Poly Pomona was favored for second in the CCAA's preseason poll, with CSULA picked to take a share of third place.
