Aug. 26, 2011

Box Score

COLORADO SPRING, Colo. - Utah State soccer fought off the lightning and the Tigers of Colorado College to earn a hard-fought, 2-1, win Friday in Colorado Springs. The match was delayed several minutes severe weather in the area.

Despite taking only two shots the entire match, Utah State was able to earn its first ever win against Colorado College. USU is now 1-0-1 against the Tigers.

The Aggie defense came through as CC took an astonishing 17 corner kicks in the match, including 13 in the first half. For the match, the Tigers out-shot the Aggies, 21-2.

With the win, the Aggies improve to 3-0-0 this season. This is the second time since 2009 that USU has started the season 3-0-0. With the loss, the Tigers fall to 0-3-0.

"We defended like crazy. Our defense held strong and did just enough to let our offense win the match for us," USU head coach Heather Cairns said. "In the second half, all the stats went to Colorado College. They are a really good team that plays a great possession style. We able to hold defensively. We definitely made our attacking chances count."

Utah State struck first in the 59th minute when sophomore midfielder Jennifer Flynn scored her first collegiate goal. The play was started by senior forward Shantel Flanary and was helped along by sophomore Kendra Pemberton. Flynn was able to ping the ball past Colorado College goalkeeper Hanna Berglund. The assist was Flanary's 12th of her career and ties her for second with USU great Charity Weston. She is now just three away from tying Lindsey Smart's record of 15 career assists.

"It was a great build up. Flanary played a nice early cross in that (Kendra) Pemberton helped along with her head. Jen was sprinting her heart out, and the ball landed just right. Jen does that all the time in practice, so it was nice for her to be able to bring it out in a match," Cairns said.

Less than three minutes later, the Aggies struck again when Flanary scored to give Utah State the 2-0 advantage. Pemberton added her second assist of the match, feeding the ball to Flanary who netted the ball. The goal was Flanary's third of the season, and she has now scored in all three of the Aggies' matches this season.

The Tigers kept the pressure coming in the second half. After Taryn Rose was called for a foul, CC's Hannah Peterson attempted the first penalty kick of the season against USU. Senior goalkeeper Molli Merrill blocked the penalty kick attempt to preserve the 2-0 lead.

Colorado College was able to cut the lead to 2-1 in the 75th minute. Brittany Lyman got the ball past Merrill for the only time in the match, hitting a shot into the right corner.

The Aggies continue their tour of the Centennial State, taking Northern Colorado on Sunday, Aug. 28 in Greely, Colo., in a Noon state. The Bears will be the third Big Sky Conference that Utah State has played this season. So far this year, USU is 2-0 with wins against the Big Sky's Weber State and Portland State.

Following the match against Northern Colorado, USU returns home to take on Utah on Friday, Sept. 2 at 4 p.m. The Utah Youth Soccer Association will be holding a clinic prior to the match, and both teams will sign autographs afterward.

Fans can follow USU soccer at http://twitter.com/USUsoccer and Utah State athletics at http://twitter.com/USUAthletics.