POCATELLO, Idaho – Idaho State soccer drew a 2-2 tie against the Idaho State Alumni Saturday afternoon at Davis Field in its first official scrimmage of the 2016 season. The scrimmage allowed the Bengals to face an opponent other than themselves for the first time this season, and it gave Head Coach
Allison Gibson strong feedback regarding the strengths and weaknesses of her new squad.
"I can draw a lot of good things from this match," Gibson said. "We stayed with our game plan tactically, offensively and defensively. There were moments when we missed the mark on some of those things, and we made a few adjustments at halftime. I was really pleased with the way the players responded to the adjustments that we made at halftime."
At the half, ISU held a 1-0 lead over the visiting Alumni squad that was made up of seven ISU alums in addition to a few current Bengals that assisted the visiting squad to field a full roster.
"It was really difficult to not have my entire team to work with the whole time, but I liked the scrimmage because it gave us good competition," Gibson said. "The current Bengals that played on the alumni squad knew what we were trying to do, so it made us perform to an even better level."
Over the course of the 90 minute scrimmage, Idaho State outshot the visiting Alumni 20-9, a statistic that the Bengals rarely dominated last season.
"I love it," Gibson said. "We had players across the board that stepped up. In this new system, we knew we needed to have players step up in all different positions, and although we didn't keep official stats, just remembering the game and who pull the trigger and took shots, that list was pretty long. I was excited to see that."
Newcomers
Brooke Kortekaas,
Michaela Didericksen,
Jazmin Lopez and
Makena Bambei all registered shots for the Bengals, with Kortekaas and Jazmin each scoring a goal. Returners
Katherine Roberts,
Esmeralda Nunez,
Alma Rangel,
Nikolina Musto, and
Sami Rodriquez also took aim at goal, but a few spectacular saves from goalkeepers
Shawna Hennings and
Katie Hogarth prevented any additional scores.
For the Alumni,
Whitney Peterson (2013-15) and Taylor Powell (2007-11) both registered goals, with each coming in the second half of play.
Idaho State has five days until its season-opener at Boise State. That time, Gibson said, will be used to rest, recuperate and study the new strategy.
"We are going to focus on getting their legs back and getting them to recover well," Gibson said. "We'll really hit the competitive aspect of wanting to win while balancing that with what success means to for us right now. That is to continue to follow our system for longer periods of time during the game."
The Bengals face Boise State Friday, Aug. 19 at 5 p.m. in Boise, Idaho for their season-opener.
