POCATELLO, Idaho – Christina Krieger's goal in the 65th minute of play gave Idaho State (2-7-0, 1-1-0) its first Big Sky Conference win against Southern Utah (1-10-0, 0-2-0 BSC). The Bengals won 1-0 in front of 295 fans at Davis Field Sunday afternoon.
"We worked on kind of stretching the field and making it a little bit wider in an attempt to keep the ball longer and then to get it forward more after that NAU game," said Head Coach
Allison Gibson. "We watched a lot of game film yesterday at practice and just kind of worked through some of those things. I thought we did a really good job with that today which helped us control the ball and control big parts of the game which was important."
Krieger led all players with five shots in the game. She netted the only goal and had two shots on goal.
Delaney Johnston was ISU's second-most active shooter with four shots, three on goal.
Meaghan Bare provided the assist and tallied two shots with one on goal.
Brooke Kortekaas and
Makena Bambei combined for five shots and six other Bengals had one.
Laule'a Akana-Phillips played 90 minutes between the posts and earned her first career shutout with five saves. It was the first shutout for ISU since Sept. 29, 2017.
"I think she's been such a pillar for us back there," Gibson said. "…Her just coming out and being brave and kind of playing on the edge of her comfort zone was huge today, and I think it saved us a lot. I'm proud of her and that shutout was big for her today."
Both offenses got off to a slow start with neither team collecting a shot in the first 10 minutes of play. Idaho State had one more shot (7-6) and save (3-2) over the first 45 minutes.
The game remained scoreless twenty minutes into the second half. Bare was able to gain an advantage on the left side of the 18-yard box and shot low. Southern Utah's keeper, Brianna Aldridge, went to her knees to make the save and the ball rebounded in front of the net.
Krieger came streaking in near the top of the goal box and shot left past the recovering goalie. It was the first goal of her three-year career with Idaho State.
"I think with Meaghan just coming in she has such an offensive kind of mindset every time she touches the ball, and as soon as she went inside I thought for sure she's going to hit this," Gibson said. "She's got such a rocket shot and I just thought as soon as that goalkeeper went to her knees it was a good opportunity for us. Just love the fact that Tina was there to put that one away, that was huge."
The Bengal defense played tough and physical, especially near the end of the game. Southern Utah was unable to gather a shot over the final eight minutes of play.
In all, Idaho State outshot Southern Utah 24-13 and forced SUU to make 13 saves. They also generated double-digit corner kicks for the first time all season with 11 to SUU's six. The Thunderbirds were plagued by offside infractions with seven in the game.
"I thought the play of
Makena Bambei and
Tristen Spooner was just tremendous this whole weekend as far as getting balls underneath and then being able to play them forward, as well as defending box to box," Gibson said. "We couldn't have done it without those two so [I'm] really proud of the way they made the adjustments this week."
Idaho State plays on the road next week with games against Sacramento State on Friday and Portland State on Sunday.
"I think that any conference team can have any jersey on and it's always going to be the same game," Gibson said. "They're just such huge battles all the way through. I think we just focus on us again this week and take our show on the road and see if we can't continue to get better every week."
