November 3, 2007

One last hurdle for LBSU girls
A win over UCSB on Sunday will complete LBSU's quest.
By Dave Werstine, Staff writer

LONG BEACH - Even though there is only one game left in its regular season, the Long Beach State women's soccer team is halfway to repeating as Big West Conference champion.

The 49ers opened their must-win, two-game weekend with a 3-1 pasting of Cal Poly on Friday afternoon at George Allen Field, moving them within a victory of first place in the very tight conference standings.

CS Fullerton, which concluded its season Thursday night, is in sole possession of first place with 18 points, followed by LBSU and Cal Poly, both of which are three points back. If the 49ers can beat visiting UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, they will join the Titans atop the standings. Creating an even further top-heavy race is Cal Poly, which can make it a three-way tie for the title with a win Sunday against CS Northridge.

The top four teams qualify for next weekend's BWC Tournament, which the conference champion would host.

"One more to go," said 49ers coach Mauricio Ingrassia, who was unsure after the game of how the first-place tiebreaker would work. "All I know is that we are playing for a conference title at home on Sunday."

If the 49ers (12-6-0, 5-2-0) have had an Achilles heel this year, it's been a penchant for slow starts. Not this time. Not with their title and postseason lives in the balance.

Long Beach State, despite losing two of their past three games 1-0 on tough-luck goals, came out with a renewed vigor, and it took them just short of 12 minutes to take the lead. Kim Silo sent a corner kick to the far side of the goalie box, where Lindsay Bullock headed it past Mustangs goalkeeper Alli Tramel and into the net for a 1-0 lead.

"The early goal helped us a lot," said midfielder Hayley Bolt, adding that it's not uncommon for teams to relax a bit after scoring early. "But we came out as hard after that as we did in the beginning and built off of it."

The 49ers kept control of the game, but weren't able to strike again until the second half.

In the 63rd minute, Mariko Strickland took a pass from Cat Gray in traffic and fired it through the arms of Tramel to make it 2-0.

With about 20 minutes remaining Ingrassia began to substitute liberally, but it didn't seem to matter much. Yeraldy Hurtado, who entered the game in the 68th minute, drove a curling right-footed blast from the top of the penalty box into the top-right corner of the net to give the 49ers a 3-0 lead in the 76th minute.

"Over a season, you are going to have your peaks and valleys. But with the season dwindling down and everything at stake, we came out fired up. It was the first game we played 90 minutes of solid soccer. Everyone, whether they were on the field or on the bench, did their part," Bolt said. "We need to stay focused and keep this going into Sunday."