SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Kicking off the 2014 season, No. 10 Santa Clara women's soccer topped UC Irvine by a final of 2-0. The win puts the Broncos at 1-0-0 on the season while the Anteaters are 0-1-0.
Santa Clara returns to the field Sun., Aug. 24 vs. Cal at 1 p.m. in a rematch of the Broncos 2013 NCAA Tournament first round game, which they won 2-1.
"I think today was a typical first game in that neither team played that well," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "We got a shutout which we're happy about and we scored a couple of goals which is always good. Our attacking rhythm wasn't wanted what we wanted so we'll have to work on that. It's early season and we have a lot of work in front of us but it's better to have a lot of work in front of us coming off of a win than coming off of a loss. We'll have to play a little better than today on Sunday against Cal if we want to give them a good game."
Santa Clara outshot Irvine 13-8 and shots on goal were 7-4. Sofia Huerta led the way for the Bronco offense with two goals while Dani Weatherholt had an assist. Andi Tostanoski picked up four saves in net.
In the 15th minute Santa Clara broke through with the first goal of the season off the head of Huerta. Weatherholt sent a beautiful ball into the center of the box that Huerta poked to the right side of the goal to make it 1-0 Broncos.
Jenna Roering had a great opportunity in the 25th minute but her shot went wide and gave Irvine a goal kick. The Broncos came right back and Jordan Jesolva took a hard shot from far out that was saved.
Santa Clara outshot UC Irvine 8-5 in the first half and 4-2 in shots on goal. Huerta scored the lone goal of the first half while Weatherholt had the assist.
The first good scoring chance of the second half came in the 75th minute when Megan Crosson got the ball on the right side of the box. Her shot went wide left and the score remained 1-0.
Irvine nearly tied the game with under four minutes left off of a corner kick. Jenna Pellegrino sent the corner into the box where Cami Privett got a head on the ball but a nice save by Tostanoski right at the crossbar kept the Broncos in the lead.
With 10 seconds left in the game Huerta scored her second goal of the game on a penalty kick to give the Broncos the 2-0 win.
