Utah State Soccer Wins Home-Opener Against Seattle Sunday, 2-1
Aug. 24, 2008
LOGAN, Utah - In only her second collegiate match, freshman Shantel Flanary scored the game-winning goal in Utah State soccer's home-opener, giving the Aggies a 2-1win over Seattle Sunday at Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field. With the win, Utah State improves to 1-1 this season. For the second-straight match, the Aggies struck first in the 70th minute when the Redhawks were called for a handball inside the box. Junior defender Lindsey Smart took the penalty kick for the Aggies and deposited the shot in the back of the net to give USU the 1-0 lead. Late in the second half, Utah State took a 2-0 lead when forward Flanary took goalkeeper Ali Griffin's punt on the goal side of the center circle. Flanary then dribbled toward the goal, around one Redhawk defender and blasted the ball past Seattle goalkeeper Madison Goverde. The assist was Griffin's first in her collegiate career, while the goal was Flanary's first collegiate goal. "Against Idaho State we played all right and could have won, but we didn't play good enough to win" USU head coach Heather Cairns said. "You don't expect your team to be in the form that it will be in later in the season, but you expect for your team to play well enough for a long enough time to give yourself a shot at winning. We did a much better job at that today than we did on Friday." The Redhawks would get one goal back at the 87:38 mark of the match, when Jamie Coe took a pass from Taylor Fannin. Coe then got the ball just over the head of Ali Griffin to cut the Aggie lead to 2-1. The score would remain 2-1 with the USU defense shutting down the Redhawks for the remainder of the match. The Aggie forwards all had strong matches. Although sophomore Lauren Hansen and junior Erin Salmon didn't score, both kept the Seattle defense on its toes. Hansen had six shots, while Salmon had two. "It is really important to win at your home field," Flanary said. "You just want to make it tough for people to come to Logan and play, so its really big to win at home." The Aggies now take to the road for two matches in the Beaver State. USU will face Oregon on Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. and Oregon State on Aug. 31 at 12 p.m. Live stats will be available for the match against Oregon through the women's soccer page on www.utahstateaggies.com, by clicking on GameTracker in the current events box. No live stats will be available for the Oregon State match. The Aggies return to the friendly confines of Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field on Thursday, Sept. 4 against Texas State. Admission to all home USU soccer matches is free. Seattle (1-1) vs. Utah State (0-1) Date: Aug 24, 2008 Attendance: 509 Weather: Sunny and warm
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