Despite a second shut out to the Cal State-Bakersfield Roadrunners, Idaho soccer coach Pete Showler was pleased with how his team played.
“I think it was our best performance of the season ill be honest, for the full 90 minutes,” Showler said. “It’s a cruel game sometimes because I think we have played far worse and won games, but that is our most complete performance.”
Freshman Kavita Battan atemps a shot Friday at Guy Wicks Field. The Vandals fell 1-0 to the Cal-State Bakersfield Roadrunners.
Showler has been preaching to his team all season about putting in 100 percent effort for the full 90 minutes of play but has yet to see the elusive perfect effort before today’s loss.
The last time that the two teams met up, the Vandals could not mount any sort of offensive momentum and were out shot and preformed by the Roadrunners.
This time around, the Vandals came out strong on the ball from the opening kick off through the final second of play. The Vandals outshot the Roadrunners in the first half six shots to eight and in the second half the teams were matched with 10 shots each.
Vandal goalkeeper Marina Siegl played for the full 90 minutes for the second time this season as freshman Torell Stewart never saw the field. Siegl put in another great showing getting five saves, one of which left her gasping for breath as she was tackled in front of the goal after a sliding save.
“She hit my foot … I fell on the ball and couldn’t breath but it was nothing serious,” Siegl said.
The lone goal in the game came in the fifth minute of the match off of a free kick following a penalty on Vandal freshman Gabby Leong. The penalty kick was taken just outside of the goal box and went over the hands of Siegl.
“I think it was not a penalty kick and unfortunately it came through the wall … it was hard because I could not see it as it came through (the wall),” Siegl said. ” We did well though, the girls did not let the goal affect them.”
Team captain Katie Baran agrees that the team kept their heads up throughout the game and played much better than they did in the last match up.
“Its disappointing that we lost but overall we can’t be too disappointed because we played really well,” Baran said. “Almost the whole game you could tell that we wanted (the win) as before they wanted it more, we were battling out there the entire time.
Idaho has a shot at redemption on Sunday. The Vandals will continue their pink Breast Cancer Awareness week as they take on Utah Valley and will be donning special pink uniforms to show their support. Friday, the Idaho coaching staff turned in their usual dress for special pink polo shirts.
“We can’t wear the same color as the players as a staff so today we wore our pink and the players will be wearing their pink for the ‘kick out cancer game’ on Sunday,” Showler said.
To raise money for the cause the team will be raffling off special items as well as selling team memorabilia and be offering special beverages.
Curtis Ginnetti can be reached at [email protected]