By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme) – Spear Reporter
San Jose State women’s soccer (3-5-4, 2-2-1 MW) continues their overall losing record against San Diego State (5-3-5, 3-1-1 MW) with a 2-0 defeat at Snapdragon Stadium.
Tightly contested half for SJSU women’s soccer
The Aztec and Spartan rivalry is one that has historically been rather one-sided, with San Jose State women’s soccer only winning two matches out of its last 19 games against SDSU.
Despite this dominance, the first half would start out rather promising for the blue and yellow.
The defense was quite solid against what has been a potent attack from San Diego. On the offensive side of the ball, the Spartans kept up a solid tempo despite only one shot attempted for either team in the first ten minutes of the game.
The Aztecs continued to push the pace, nearly netting a goal at the 16-minute mark. However, freshman goalkeeper Bente Pernot saw to it that nothing got through for SJSU.
SDSU junior forward Emma Gaines-Ramos used her speed often, creating chances for her team and forcing SJSU defenders to backpedal often just to keep up.
Pernot came out aggressively to kick away a ball toward the end of the first half. She would end up colliding with a player on SDSU, but thankfully both would be okay and Pernot ended up making a nice defensive play.
This would end the half with both teams still at a draw of 0-0.
San Jose State women’s soccer crumbles under pressure from Aztec offense
The Spartans didn’t get a shot on goal through the first 30 minutes in the second half.
The chances would continue to roll in for San Diego until finally, the dam broke. At the 55:04 mark, senior midfielder Kiera Utush would score on an assist from sophomore midfielder Denise Castro.
It was an odd goal, as Ramos kicked it off an SJSU player’s head in the box and as the ball hung in the air Utush headed it in past Pernot.
San Jose State women’s soccer once again found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard against the Aztecs.
In response, Spartans’ junior forward Evan House nearly scored on a shot from the right wing. It was gracefully fought off though by SDSU junior goalkeeper Alexa Madueno, who had a great night overall.
The blue and yellow would continue to push, but the dagger would be pushed in by Ramos, scoring for San Diego at the 85-minute mark. On a defensive breakdown, Castro would come streaking down the right side of the field and find Ramos wide open out in front for an easy tap-in to make it 2-0.
The match would end with a bit of fireworks between the two teams, though that would not change the score of 2-0 in favor of San Diego State.
San Jose State women’s soccer will play its next match against New Mexico on their home turf on Oct. 9 at 12:00 p.m.
