The Fresno State women’s soccer team pulled out a tough one with a late goal to beat Air Force 1-0, extending its win streak to three.

The ‘Dogs get their second-straight shutout after shutting down Colorado College 1-0 this past Friday.

For the majority of the match, both the ‘Dogs (4-8-1, 3-2-1) and Falcons (4-9-1, 2-3-1) were in a stalemate as neither team could find the net.

“Air Force is an extremely resilient and athletic team,” head coach Brian Zwaschka said. “I have never known them to stop fighting.”

It wasn’t until the 80:11 mark the ‘Dogs took the lead as sophomore Maria Gomez would find the net in melee after a missed penalty kick by sophomore Ashari Hines.

“Just seeing all my teammates work hard really pushed me to work harder,” Gomez said.

Within the match Gomez had six shots, raising her season total to 25 — the most by any Bulldog this season.
“Maria [Gomez] is a tremendous spark plug for us,” Zwaschka said. “She has that spark of creativity that we need in order to change the game, especially when we have a game this tight.”

Bulldog sophomore Myra Delgadillo was blanketed by the Falcons all match and would not let her give the ball ending her three-game scoring streak.

The match was very physical as five yellow cards were handed out, two issued to the Falcons and three to the ‘Dogs.

The Bulldogs outshot the Falcons 22-13, giving the ‘Dogs a season-high in shots with 11 of them being on goal.

Falcons’ goalkeeper Alex Kahalley was busy all match as seven different Bulldogs were able to get shots on goal. Kahalley had 10 saves on the match.

Bulldog freshman goalkeeper Marie Berwinkel-Kottmann earned herself a second-straight shutout while getting seven saves in the process. Berwinkel-Kottmann’s improves her record to 3-2-0 and now has 36 saves over eight match for the season.
“I think that the biggest thing was that we were very unified from what was going on on the field to the players on the bench, who were very uplifting and impacted the game,” Zwaschka said. “I was really proud of the bench today.”

This is the first time the ‘Dogs have won three straight games since 2013. With the win, the Bulldogs stand alone in fifth place in the Mountain West Conference.