Photo Gallery l Box Score
Pocatello, Idaho -Eight Bengal players scored to lead Idaho State to the 9-0 exhibition victory over the College of Idaho on Tuesday afternoon at Davis Field.
The Bengals outshot the Yotes 23-4 in a dominant performance in the final tune-up before regular season starts Friday with Boise State.
Senior Lanie Ward started the scoring early with a 10-yard goal off of a centering pass from junior Amanda Ellsworth in just the fifth minute of the game.
Senior Laura Benson got on the board exactly eight minutes later when she emerged from a crowd in front of the goal to score an unassisted goal.
The Yotes then held the Bengals scoreless for nearly 25 minutes before junior Alyssa Kenney and senior Kiley Godfrey scored a goal each in the final three minutes of the first half to give the Bengals a 4-0 lead going into the break.
The College of Idaho started the second half aggressively but the Yotes overextended their defense and allowed sophomore Whitney Peterson to score just two and a half minutes into the second frame.
Ellsworth scored back-to-back goals in the 51st minute to push the lead to 7-0. Freshman Jessica Sanchez and sophomore Lauren Bermudez each scored in the final 20 minutes of the game to set the final score at 9-0.
The Bengals scored three goals off of corner kicks or free kicks into the box. Head Coach Allison Gibson was excited to see her team's aggression on the offensive side of the field.
"We've spent a lot of time on our set pieces and it showed today," Gibson said. "There are a lot of those on the table during the season and someone will take those and it might as well be us."
The Bengals played much more like a team than they did just a week ago in a 2-0 win against Salt Lake Community College. Gibson attributes the improvement to the team's annual weekend team building retreat.
"A lot of what we do together at the cabin is teamwork and team building," Gibson said. "The players might not realize it but we want them to learn to care about each other. When you share personal moments and learn to care about someone you will work harder for them. It is always our goal with that trip and I think we accomplished that this year."
The Bengals' improvement over last week's effort was obvious but the opposition takes a step to the next level this weekend when Idaho State hosts Boise State Friday and Idaho Sunday in the first regular season action of the season.
"Today was big because we go a chance to see that when we do things right there will be success at the end," Gibson said. "The first couple of games we've tried to push things through regardless of it working or not. Today it flowed and came together. I think it gave us a big boost of confidence before Friday and Sunday."
The match with Boise State takes place Friday, 4 p.m. at Davis Field. Sunday's match with Idaho will take place at 12 p.m. also at Davis Field.
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