Photos by Jovanni Arroyo-Camberos
Mireya Wathen-Mayorga scored golden goal winner in overtime to defeat the Boise State Broncos on Oct.2 at the Spartan Soccer Field.
The San Jose State women’s soccer team split their weekend homestand with a wild win over Boise State and tough loss to Utah State in consecutive conference matchups.
The Spartans (5-5-4, 3-1-0 MW) opened the homestand by defeating the Boise State Broncos in a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory Friday afternoon.
The game was a hard-fought match, which ended with the Spartans coming back from one down to score two unanswered goals, one in the second half of the match and one in sudden death.
The Broncos dominated the majority of the first half by controlling and dictating the game with possession.
The Spartans also put pressure on the Broncos, which led to them making defensive mistakes throughout the game.
Head coach Lauren Hanson said the team knew coming into the game that Boise State would try to control the game through possession and tried applying pressure to make key errors and pick off passes.
“We talked about focus for 90 minutes all along and just taking one half at a time and so they really focused throughout the entire game and I was really proud of them,” Hanson said.
The action began in the second half when Brooke Heidemann scored for the Broncos and broke the deadlock tie less than 20 seconds into the game.
The Spartans answered back with a goal in the 76th minute of the second half with a header from a corner kick by defender Veronica Ghung.
The Spartans had the momentum on their side entering overtime. In the 98th minute of the first overtime, midfielder Mireya Wathen-Mayorga scored on a header inside the box to end the game with the golden goal.
“It was really a team effort. I felt like that our team has been improving each game and every single half we improve, and we’ve just been battling for each other,” Wathen-Mayorga said. “ To say that I get all the credit really isn’t deserving of me and it was definitely a team battle.”
The Spartans were back on the field Sunday afternoon when they suffered their first loss in the Mountain West Conference against the Aggies.
The Aggies began the game by dominating the Spartans in shots in the first period. They had nine shots on goal with one of the shots ending in the lone goal of the match.
The Spartans responded in the second half with nine of their own shots, but the effort was not enough to stop the Aggies.
“It’s a different challenge and we played against a great Utah State team who has done well in the preseason play and they have a talented team,” Hanson said.
Chung said keeping focus for 90 minutes is a key thing the Spartans need to work on going forward. They also need to control their excitement to get a better result.
“I think that we can be a little more dynamic in our attack at times, especially when we win the ball in the midfield third and looking to get forward quickly will help us.” Hanson said.
SJSU now stands in third place at 3-1-0 in the Mountain West and hopes to come back from its first conference defeat of the season.
The Spartans’ next home game is against Air Force on Friday, Oct. 23 at noon at the Spartan Soccer Field.
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