Wildcats Scored Two Goals In 46 Seconds
Soccer News: With a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line, Santa Clara women’s soccer fell to Arizona 2-1 on Thursday night. The Wildcats scored two goals in the span of 46 seconds in the first half for the only offense they would need. The Broncos added a goal late in the second half but couldn’t find the equalizer.
Santa Clara (14-6-2) was led by Ashley Doyle who scored its only goal late in the game. Andi Tostanoski made four saves.
Hannah Wong led Arizona (14-5-2) with a pair of goals in less than a minute midway through the first half. Lainey Burdett collected four saves.
“I’m proud of the team,” said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. “We were on our front foot and had our chances but our downfall today was that we didn’t get our shots on goal. Credit to Arizona who had a great free kick for the first goal and hit a bomb for the second goal. They were two perfect shots and they had to be to beat our goalkeeper because she’s that good. We’re proud of the way we played and we wouldn’t change that but would have liked to have been on the other side of the outcome.”
The Broncos got on the board for the first time in the 84th minute. After pushing forward Doyle got the ball in the box and bodied up an Arizona defender. Doyle made a turn and knocked the low shot inside the right post to cut the deficit to one.
In the 32nd minute Arizona got a free kick from just outside the box and took advantage. Wong took the kick and hit it into the upper-left corner of the goal, just past the fingertips of Tostanoski.
Less than a minute later Wong scored again. From nearly the same spot she took a shot during the run of play that went inside the left post and into the back of the net that made it 2-0 in the 33rd minute.
The Broncos had a great scoring chance in the 59th minute but Burdett came up big. Kellie Peay had an open shot in the box that got saved but the ball popped out into the open in front of an empty net. An Arizona defender was able to get a foot on the ball and clear it.
Despite a frantic push forward in the final minutes, Santa Clara could not score the tying goal and its season ended with the final horn.
