LOGAN, Utah — Utah State soccer (8-7-1, 5-2 MW) began a four-match homestand Thursday afternoon, using a 25-14 shot advantage to earn a 2-0 victory over Fresno State.
On a rain-soaked Chuck and Gloria Bell Field, the Aggies posted one of their most potent offensive performances of the season with 14 different players getting shots off in the match. The opportunities came early and often for USU, which fired off 18 shots in the first half alone while limiting Fresno State to just six.
"Fresno State is a good team, their record doesn't reflect their quality and they showed it," said Utah State head coach
Manny Martins. "We needed to come out strong and come out on the front foot, because if we didn't, they have the potential to get a result, so it worked out well. We wanted to get in front of the goal and get a lot of shots, we got that. We wanted to be a little bit more clinical, but scoring two goals is definitely a good thing."
After several near misses and shots that hit the post, the Aggies got into the scoring column in the 25th minute when sophomore midfielder
Kaylie Chambers found herself in the right spot to clean up a shot by junior forward
Tenzi Knowles which was deflected by the Bulldog goalkeeper. This was Chambers third goal of the season, while Knowles and freshman forward
Kate Christian were each credited with their first assists of the season.
Chambers' work was not done for the day, however. Just five minutes into the second half, she found junior forward
Bizzy Arevalo in the box, who lured the keeper out and relayed the pass along to freshman midfielder
Summer Diamond. Diamond then calmly found the bottom corner of the net with a right-footer for her team-best fourth goal of the campaign.
The Aggies finished the match with 25 shots, one shy of a season high, while limiting the Bulldogs to 14. Seven different USU players recorded multiple shots in the match, while four took three or more shots.
In net, it was graduate keeper
Diera Walton playing all 90 minutes and earning the 26th shutout of her career, extending her lead atop the program's all-time clean sheet leaderboard. She recorded six saves in the match.
Utah State now remains at home to continue its homestand at Chuck and Gloria Bell Field. The Aggies next face San José State on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 12 p.m. The match will be streamed on Mountain West Network, with links to the live stream and stats available on utahstateaggies.com.
Fans can follow the Aggie soccer program on Twitter, @USUSoccer, on Facebook at /USUSoccer and on Instagram, @USUSoccer. Aggie fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program on Twitter, @USUAthletics, Facebook at /USUAthletics and on Instagram, @USUAthletics.
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