California Baptist University
Cal State San Marcos
LANCERS BLANKED
9/13/2007 7:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Box Score
SAN MARCOS, Calif. --- Coming off back-to-back shutout victories during its swing through Northern California, California Baptist had hoped to return that momentum to the Southland.
Cal State San Marcos had other ideas.
Lucia Asbury's header off a corner kick in the final minute of the first half was all the Cougars needed to escape with a 1-0 victory over the Lancers Tuesday in San Marcos.
The loss is just the Lancers' second of the season as they fall to 4-2. Both of their losses have been 1-0 setbacks. Meanwhile, CSUSM, which dropped a narrow 1-0 loss of its own to the NAIA's top-ranked Azusa Pacific last week, improves to 2-4-1.
Only a combined 12 shots were taken, six from each team, as most of the game was played in the middle third of the field. It took CBU an entire half to get going?45 minutes too late.
“We came out flat, but made adjustments and began to win the 50-50 balls and controlled the run of play in the second half,” said CBU head coach Kristen St. Clair. “Unfortunately, it's hard to get the result you want when you only play 45 minutes. To only get six shots is a little abmormal for us, but the game was played between the 18s and it was physical. We did a good job in the second half to disrupt their rythym, and eventually created some dangerous chances but just couldn't finish.”
The Lancers had a flurry late in the game, creating a few solid chances, but Cougar keeper Jane Drury needed to make just one save to preserve the shutout.
The game appeared to be headed to a scoreless intermission, but the Cougars took advantage of one of their five corner kicks when Taylor Ziencina served a perfect ball into the box. Asbury rose above the Lancer defense and headed home the game's only goal.
“This was a good test for us,” said St. Clair. “They are a good team, and their record is not indicative of the type of team they are. They pressured us on the ball very well in the first half and it took us a little while to adjust. We'll look at this with some persepective, and we learned some things about us and still need to refine some things. This season is a process, and this game is part of it.”
