Phong Ly / The Collegian
Despite dominating the first 40 minutes of play, the Fresno State soccer team gave up three unanswered goals en route to a 3-2 extra-time defeat.
All Fresno State soccer head coach Brian Zwaschka needed was a little more time.
But in extra time Sunday afternoon, the Bulldogs were eventually downed by the visiting UC Davis Aggies, leading to the second heartbreaking home loss in as many games inside Bulldog Stadium.
Nearly three weeks ago, Fresno State suffered a final-minute 1-nil loss to Long Beach State to open up the 2010 home schedule.
But Zwaschka said dropping a game in similar fashion Sunday does not mean the season is lost.
“I don’t just jump the gun and start talking to them about things until I’ve had a chance to review the video and really kind of pinpoint information because I don’t want it to be an end-of-the-world speech based on another loss,” Zwaschka said. “When we lost to Long Beach it was a heartbreaker because it was in the last minute, but they’re an excellent team and they showed that within the next week or so they were already in the top-24 rankings, so of course that was a difficult team.”
After 90 minutes of regular game play, the ‘Dogs and Aggies were deadlocked at 2-2 and headed to extra time. Just three minutes into the extra period, however, UC Davis’ Samantha Faber devastated Fresno State with a game-stealing goal on Bulldog goalkeeper Kaitlyn Revel.
“Dealing with Davis there were a few more unknowns in terms of the idea that they haven’t started out that well this season so they’ve been working hard to improve and they snuck one on us,” Zwaschka said.
The ‘Dogs came out firing in the first half against the Aggies, racing to a 1-0 lead after junior midfielder Laura Dodd’s goal in the 33rd minute off a Tara Boynton assist. The goal marked Dodd’s team-leading third score of the season.
Less than seven minutes later, senior forward Nicole Duff headed in a Molly Nizzoli corner kick and had the ‘Dogs cruising, up 2-0 in the 40th minute.
But UC Davis forward Allison Kelly ignited a resilient Aggie squad with her penalty kick goal just prior to halftime. The goal was the first of three unanswered goals that doomed the ‘Dogs in the final 51 minutes of play.
“I thought that we were a little bit sluggish unfortunately,” Zwaschka said. “I think that Davis really came to play and I think they’ve had a rough go at the beginning of their season and so they had something to prove.”
Matt Weir/ The Collegian
Zwaschka’s team is familiar with rough starts, as the Bulldogs opened 2010 with a 0-3 start. However a two-week road stretch that sent Fresno State to tournaments in El Paso and Miami, Fla. jump-started his unit as they went 4-0 while showing vast improvements.
“We definitely had two very difficult road trips and so it was an excellent start for us because with the travel and the distances and the time changes and everything like that I was really impressed with how our team sucked it up and got their details right and came away with two sweeps,” Zwaschka said.
Fresno State will need to regain that strong play later this week when it hosts the Anteaters of UC Irvine. The ‘Dogs were shutout by UC Irvine 3-0 last season, so Zwaschka is very aware of what his team faces and the preparation that lays ahead.
“I know Irvine is a really good team,” Zwaschka said. “I think some of the training that we’ll do this week will have to do with bouncing back and showing the character that we’re actually a good team and we’re prepared to play with the top teams. We’re just going to work a little bit more on our fitness and getting our details polished up.”