BERKELEY, Calif. - Playing its second top-25 Pac-12 opponent in as many games to open the season, No. 25 Santa Clara women's soccer took down No. 15 Cal by a final of 1-0. The win moves the Broncos to 1-1-0 while Cal falls to 2-1-0.
Santa Clara returns to the field Sun., Aug. 26 at 1 p.m. when it hosts UC Riverside for the home-opener.
Cal outshot Santa Clara 5-2 in the first half and 16-3 for the game but the Bears were unable to cash in any of their scoring chances, being shutout after scoring five goals in their previous game. Cal also collected seven corner kicks to the Broncos one and came close to cashing in on several.
The lone goal of the game was scored unassisted by Sarah Jackson in the 16th minute. Freshman goalkeeper Andy Tostanoski bounced back after a rough game vs. Stanford to collect her first career shutout while picking up nine saves, including seven in the second half.
"The good news about today is that we did enough to win the game against a team ranked No. 15 on their home field," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "I'm very proud of the players and how they battled today. In the second half of this game we battled harder than at Stanford. It wasn't pretty but we got the job done. We need to play better, to keep the ball better and create more chances. That being said, we definitely battled in the second half of this game and I think that was the big difference for us."
Both teams had chances to score early on in the match. In the first minutes a through ball to Meleana Shim near the goal was just out of her reach to keep Santa Clara from jumping ahead. Minutes later Cal took a pass just onside and took a shot that was saved by Tostanoski to preserve the scoreless tie.
In the 16th minute the Broncos had possession on Cal's end of the field when the ball found its way to Jackson at the top of the box. Jackson controlled the ball and took a few touches to get around the defenders before hitting a shot on the ground just past the outreached arms of the Cal goalkeeper to the left side of the net. It was the first goal of the year for Jackson and made the score 1-0.
The second half saw Cal hold possession of the ball for the majority of the period. Tostanoski came up big several times to keep the Broncos ahead 1-0. Cal also had several chances that they failed to cash in on including a corner kick that lead to a header just over the crossbar.
"There are two things that have to happen for us to have more possession," continued Smith. "When we do get the ball we need to be better at keeping it. Also, when the opponent has the ball we have to be better at recognizing when we can double-team the ball. I thought we did a nice job of that in the first half but in both games, as soon as we scored a goal, we stopped working hard in our offensive categories and I think that's what we need to do a better job of most of all. To be 1-1 at this point in the season against the competition we have played is very good for us."