SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's soccer team played the Washington State Cougars nearly straight up for the first 85 minutes, allowing only one goal, but a pair of late Cougars tallies put the game away in a 3-0 win over the Aztecs on the SDSU Sports Deck on Thursday night.
San Diego State (1-4-0) saw the Cougars attempt the game's first two shots, before Emma Gaines-Ramos pulled the trigger in the ninth minute. The shot went just wide left of the goal.
Seven minutes later, Washington State (2-0-1) got the game's initial goal, at the 16:42 mark, when Enzi Broussard collected a ball on the right side of the box and played it to the far post. Sydney Struder headed it in behind Aztecs' keeper Alexa Madueno for a 1-0 lead.
The score would remain 1-0 through the end of the first half with the Cougars out shooting SDSU 8-to-1 and Madueno making two saves.
The second half would see more of the same, Washington State would outshoot the Aztecs 11-to-2 and Madueno would make seven saves, but despite the disparity in stats, San Diego State kept playing hard and proving difficult for the Cougars to handle.
However, in the 86th minute Grayson Lynch would score the first of her two late goals to put the game out of reach. She was assisted on the first by Elyse Bennett and scored the second, unassisted, in the 88th minute.
For the game the Aztecs were outshot 19-to-3. Gaines-Ramos produced two shots and Trinity Coker attempted the other in the 78th minute, which was the only shot to reach the line of the Washington State keeper Marissa Zucchetto.
Madueno made nine saves, many simply spectacular, to keep the Aztecs in the game. In the last three games, she has made eight, 14 and nine saves and for the year has 41. Entering the game, the sophomore out of Woodland, Calif., ranked No. 11 in the nation in saves per game (8.00) and No. 4 in total saves (32), both of which should move her up the rankings after Thursday evenings performance.
THE NOTE
After the Washington State game, Alexa Madueno leads the Mountain West in saves with 41. The No. 2 ranked keeper in the league has 18 saves.
UP NEXT
The Aztecs host Long Beach State on Sunday night. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m. on the SDSU Sports Deck.
-SDSU-
Aztecs Outgunned By Washington State
