SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's soccer team outshot the San Diego Toreros 12-to-7, including 6-to-2 in shots on goal, but it was USD which took advantage of a late opportunity and scored at the 77:11 mark en route to a 1-0 win on the SDSU Sports Deck on Friday night.
From the opening whistle, the Aztecs took the play to San Diego. SDSU (1-4-1) took a season-high equaling seven shots in the first half and put three on frame, but couldn't find the back of the net. The best chance to score for either team in the first 45 minutes came at the 44:08 mark.
On a USD corner, keeper Brooke Lisowski grabbed the pass into the box and fed it out to Ariana Robles who moved it into midfield and onto the foot of Kiera Utush. Utush then played a through ball toward Taylor Moorehead as she neared the top of the 18. Toreros' keeper Amber Michel charged out to cut down the angle and attempted to grab the ball. She bobbled it, misplayed it to her left, and right onto the foot of Veronica Avalos. Avalos fired a shot toward the open goal, but a USD defender came from behind the play and blocked the shot, sending the game to the half, 0-0.
In the second half, the Aztecs continued to enjoy the better run of play, outshooting USD 4-0 in the first 33 minutes. Among those four shots for SDSU would be its second dangerous chance. Laura Fuentes stole the ball in the Toreros end and quickly fed Chloe Frisch, who drove to the middle of the field and from 30 yards out blasted a shot. It went over the USD keeper's outstretched hand and slammed off the cross bar.
The game remained scoreless until the 78th minute. USD's Milan Moses took a pass at the top of the 18, swung around and fired a shot just inside the right post to make it 1-0. USD would make the tally standup over the final 12 minutes and earned the 1-0 result.
Frisch led the Aztecs' offense with four of the team's 12 shots. Malia Kaleiohi and Robles took two shots each, both on frame. Fuentes, Avalos, Utush and Jessica Sanders produced one shot apiece. Keeper Brooke Lisowski (1-4-1) made one save among the two shots which reached her line.
For San Diego (4-2-0), Moses took five of the team's seven shots and Michel (4-2-0) made six saves.
THE QUOTE
"One of the things that I liked last week was we played well on the road and I think we did a much better job tonight bringing that level of intensity and effort to the game," said head coach Mike Friesen. "We did a good job of settling down and then just playing when we had the ball. We moved it, changed the point of attack, and created a lot of opportunities. We just missed on the final product and that is something we have to get better at or we will struggle to score goals and win games. So, we've got to do a little better, in and around the penalty box, of putting balls in the right spots with composure when we create opportunities. But overall, I feel tonight we played really well."
UP NEXT
The Aztecs wrap up the non-conference portion of the schedule on Sunday when they travel to Malibu to take on the Pepperdine Waves. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. and links to live stats and streaming video are on the team's schedule page at www.goaztecs.com.
Women's Soccer Falls To USD 1-0
