Sept. 28, 2005
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Meagan Snell continued her prolific play Wednesday night as another Rivalry Series matchup was claimed by the Broncos. The fifth-ranked Santa Clara women's soccer team downed San Jose State 2-1 at Spartan Stadium to not only gain three more points in the all-sports battle between the two schools but also to up their record to 8-1-1.
"I thought we had a full team effort today, everybody played except for two of our goalkeepers, and Jessica Whalen got in her first collegiate game ever and Kira Sarkisian got in her first game with our team," said head coach Jerry Smith after the victory. "San Jose was very organized and kept numbers back. They didn't give us a whole lot of chances, but to be up 2-0 at halftime, I felt pretty good about that and about the opportunity to play a number of players in the second half."
The Broncos struck in the 11th minute as Snell threaded a nice through ball to Tiffany Roberts who beat Spartan goalkeeper Adrienne Herbert for her first goal of the season. Santa Clara's second goal came on nearly the same type of play, this time the through ball came from Jordan Angeli to Snell, who was left one-on-one with Herbert and drilled a shot to the low post.
With San Jose State dropping multiple defenders back for most of the first half, the Broncos were able to play much of that first 45 minutes in the Spartan half of the field. But in the 43rd minute Angeli, who had been taken down hard moments earlier by San Jose State's Amanda Villa, was issued a red card and ejected for retaliating against Villa.
For those final minutes of the first half and all of the second the Broncos were forced to play with only 10 on the field but still managed to hold the Spartans until Jessica Scott got off a rolling shot that beat Meagan McCray to the low post to halve the Bronco lead in the 86th minute. But that was as close as the Spartans got, and the Broncos closed out their eighth win of the season a few minutes later.
"To play with ten players for over half of the match is never going to be easy against anybody, particularly on their home field," Smith added. "But I thought the team adjusted fairly well and at times we looked really good with only ten players. Still, it's a win, and it's a win for the Rivalry Series and I'm happy about that."
No. 5 Santa Clara returns to action Friday night as they travel to Maloney Field at Stanford to take on the No. 18 Cardinal in the Stanford Nike Classic. Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
