SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In the first home West Coast Conference game of the season, Santa Clara women's soccer beat Pacific by a final of 2-0. The win puts the Broncos at 10-5-0 overall and 3-1-0 in WCC play while the Tigers are 2-12-1 and 0-5-0 in conference action.
Santa Clara returns to the field Thurs., Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at BYU.
"We're always happy to get a shutout and it's a good feeling when we can get a lot of players into a victory," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "There were more goals out there for us but our finishing was not up to our standard. Other than shots on goal and goals, I thought we played pretty well. We can't seem to get out of a game without an injury so we're hoping Katie's ankle isn't too seriously injured. All in all, we're pleased with the performance outside of some finishing issues."
Santa Clara outshot Pacific 19-3 and shots on goal were 5-0 in favor of the Broncos. Nikki Ambrose and Kat McAuliffe led the way for the Bronco offense with a goal apiece while Brittany Ambrose had two shots on goal.
A corner kick in the sixth minute nearly led to a goal for the Broncos. The kick itself nearly went in but was deflected out to Katie Speidel whose shot flew high.
B. Ambrose received a beautiful ball in the 16th minute that put her with just one defender and the goalkeeper to beat. She hit a low shot to the far post but the keeper made a nice diving stop to keep the game scoreless.
Santa Clara broke through in the 21st minute with the first goal of the year from N. Ambrose. Huerta had the ball in the box but it got knocked away and went to N. Ambrose. After a touch she blasted the ball past the keeper and into the back of the net to make it 1-0 Broncos.
Santa Clara outshot Pacific 11-1 and shots on goal were 3-0 in favor of the Broncos in the first half. N. Ambrose led the way for the Bronco offense with a goal while B. Ambrose had two shots on goal.
In the 64th minute McAuliffe was taken down in the box to set up a penalty kick. She took the chance and converted with a shot to the left half of the goal to give the Broncos a 2-0 lead.
