Sept. 19, 2010
CORVALLIS, Ore. -
San Diego State-No. 18 Oregon State Final Box in PDF Format
San Diego State senior Michaela DeJesus scored a career-high two goals as the Aztecs and No. 18 Oregon State played to a 2-2 tie at the Oregon State Nike Invitational Sunday afternoon. SDSU, which rallied from a one-goal deficit, moves to 2-5-3 on the year, while the Beavers go to 5-0-1. The evenly played match marks the second consecutive season in which the schools competed for 110 minutes and finished in a tie.
The match was scoreless into the 52nd minute until Oregon State's Megan Miller broke the tie at 51:52. The sophomore midfielder attempted a long shot from the middle of the pitch and found the upper left corner.
The Beavers' lead was short-lived, however, as DeJesus and the Aztecs countered immediately and leveled the score just 1 minute, 34 seconds later. The Dublin, Calif., native dribbled the ball up the middle and fired a shot to the lower right portion of the net and recorded her second goal of the season.
For the next 10 minutes, the match remained deadlocked until DeJesus was on the receiving end of a deflected pass. DeJesus controlled the ball and blasted a shot to the upper left corner, which got past the Beavers goalkeeper, to provide San Diego State with the go-ahead goal and nearly 26 minutes left in regulation.
With time running out, Oregon State began to put pressure on goalkeeper Aubree Southwick and the Aztec defense, but each time SDSU turned them away. In the 80th minute, however, the Beavers sent a long pass to the middle, which was tipped past Megan McQueeny by Ashley Folsom, and Chelsea Buckland found the back of the net to even the score at 2-2.
Despite the setback, Southwick maintained her stellar play in goal and stopped all four shots that came her way in the final minutes of regulation, including an attempt right before the buzzer, as the match moved to extra time.
In the first overtime, San Diego State came out and had a couple of great opportunities. DeJesus got a shot off 40 seconds into the stanza, which later turned into a corner kick chance. Then two minutes later, the Aztecs earned another corner, which almost turned into the same game-winning scenario more than a week ago against San Jose State. In the match vs. the Spartans, DeJesus sent a corner to the far post which led to Britney Bennett's game-winner. Today, the same sequence occurred, but this time Bennett had her shot hit the crossbar and the contest remained knotted at 2-2 heading into the final 10 minutes.
In the second OT, neither team had quality chances even though Southwick made two saves and the score remained tied as the final horn went off.
With her two goals, DeJesus set a career high for goals scored and points earned a single game. The senior also has three goals to date, which is also a career high for goals in a season. For the match, she had a team-best five shots, including four on goal. Southwick, meanwhile, made a personal-best 16 saves. Prior to today, her career high for saves in a match was 10 at Nebraska in 2007 and earlier this season at No. 9 Florida.
As a team, San Diego State totaled 10 shots with six coming on net. Meanwhile, Oregon State supposedly had an astounding 28 shots, including a whopping 18 on net. After the first 45 minutes of action, the Beavers had a slight edge in shots (5-4) with the Aztecs holding an advantage in shots on goal (3-2). SDSU, however, won the corner kick battle, 4-2.
At the end of the tournament, DeJesus and freshmen Soledad Gomez and Haley Palmer were named to the all-tourney team.
SDSU returns to action on Friday, Sept. 24, when it plays host to Cal State Fullerton at SDSU Sports Deck. First tap is slated for 1:30 p.m. PT.