Sept. 23, 2009
Final Stats
Utah Valley Box Score 
Pocatello, ID--Freshman Rachel Strawn scored her first career goal with 7:32 remaining in the second period to push Idaho State to a 2-1 victory over Utah Valley at Davis Field Wednesday afternoon. Idaho State (4-4-0) captured its first home victory of the season as they dominated offensively out-shooting the Wolverines 24-to-13, and tying the All-Time corner kicks game record at Idaho State with a lucky 13, ten in the first half alone. The Bengals are on a two-game winning streak while Utah Valley (1-8-0) fell in its third straight contest.
"A.J. (Ashley Jones) got it, played a great ball to the outside where I needed it and I could hear my whole team yelling at me to cut in, so I did and there was the goal," said Strawn. "I think it will break the ice a little bit as I've assisted a lot of goals and I hadn't scored any, so hopefully it will make it easier in the future."
Idaho State was not shy offensively as they dominated play as well as the Big Five game when they started off strong with senior Annamarie Hofstetter giving the Bengals an early edge when she scored off the ISU's first shot of the contest at the 1:16 mark, 30 yards out assisted by senior Kacey Ball.
"I think it was big for us to set the tone early to get that goal," said Hofstetter. "We need to come out with that mentality every game; start strong and make them adapt to us rather than the other way around."
The goal was Hofstetter's third of her career, her second of the season. Ball who assisted traditionally plays the defender position but has moved up to forward in ISU's last three contests. However, the senior was not tentative as she led the Bengals in shots with seven, three of which were on goal.
"It's funny because it's there, you know it's there. It's the same thing every game and today we capitalized on it," said head coach Allison Gibson of the Big Five a soccer term for the first and last five minutes of each period in which most goals are scored. "We dominated a majority of the game, shot-wise obviously, we had some great opportunities. From penalty-box to penalty box there were times when they outplayed us, but overall in the final third we did a good job creating our opportunities and executing."
Utah Valley was able to give the Bengals a scare when Adrienne Schneider scored her first goal of the season as her shot crept past ISU's keeper Bailey Williams when it curved away from her into the bottom right corner of the goal. Kelly Vide assisted on the goal which was scored with 38:40 on the clock.
Williams posted four saves during the contest and defender Christina Beseris credited the team with a save when she blocked a UVU shot with her body. Wolverine keeper Tasha Bell withstood 24 shots, with ten on goal and produced eight saves.
The Bengals had an immediate chance to recapture the lead as Utah Valley was whistled for a foul when Morgan Olson went tumbling to the ground at the left corner of the box drawing a penalty kick for the Bengals. Junior Lauren Ryan took the penalty kick, but Wolverine keeper Tasha Bell would make a solid save diving to defend the bottom right of the goal keeping the tie at 1-1 which lasted into the half.
Idaho State took Utah Valley by storm as they out-shot them 12-to-6 in the first half and posted 10 corner kicks to the Wolverine's lone corner. ISU had four corner kicks in a row in the first period.
"To have that many corner kicks today without converting is tough, but we got a couple good opportunities off of them which is better, because before we would have great corner kicks and we would let it go through the box untouched," said Gibson. "We are getting good opportunities we just need to capitalize on one because that is our game plan to get to the end line and draw corner kicks."
In the second half the Bengals continued to dominate as they posted 12 shots to UVU's seven, and just when it looked like the contest would head into overtime freshman Strawn scored her first career goal a the 82:28 mark when she buried it in the right corner.
"She's been such a great weapon for us," said head coach Gibson of freshman forward Strawn. "For the most part she draws the defenders and slips by them and that's why she has so many assists and that is what I thought she was going to do on that one shot. When she pulled up and hit that ball I thought `good for you'. That's the other side of what Rachel can do so I was really happy for her to get that, it was awesome."
Idaho State looks to continue its success on the road as the Bengals play Utah State in their final non-conference game of the season. Last year the Bengals opened the season with a 2-1 overtime victory against the Aggies at home. This time ISU will play Utah State on Thursday, October 1 at the Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field in Logan, Utah. Kick-off time is 4 p.m.
Notes: ISU's last 13 corner kick contest was against Carroll College at home for a 7-1 victory in August of 2000 ... Strawn who leads the Bengals in assists and Ashley Jones who leads the Bengals in goals swapped styles for the game-winner as Jones assisted on Strawn's goal ... Hofstetter has scored all three of her career goals against Utah schools, her first two were game-winner against Southern Utah (freshman and senior year) ... An illegal substitution was made for Utah Valley when Camille Broderick entered the first half for the second time replacing Laura Bluth the players swapped again to fix the correction, the substitution did not affect the game ... ISU is 3-3-3 at home in the last two years, ISU's last home victory was on October 23rd when the Bengals defeated Sacramento State 3-2, before that it was ISU's home opener victory over Utah State.
