Salt Lake City, UT - On a windy day in Salt Lake City, Idaho State Soccer arrived at the University of Utah, taking on the Utes in the first of two remaining non-conference games.
Facing a Big 12 Squad with a daunting offensive attack, the Bengals were undeterred by the level of competition and determined to make a statement.
They did just that, and it took less than a minute. Virginia Wallace took the ball down the sideline and booted a laser of a pass to Samantha Esparza, whose header ricocheted off the chin of a Ute defender and rolled right in front of Daphne Egelhoff, who threaded the needle around the goalkeeper for the first score of her career in the first 40 seconds of the game.
The celebration was short-lived, however, as the Utes rebounded and went on the offensive. Taliana Kaufasi rattled off two goals in just over three minutes to make it a 1-2 game in the first 15 minutes.
The Bengals would continue to scrap with their Big 12 foe, with multiple impressive saves, including a launching header from
Isabella Winton that sailed a would-be Ute goal into the softball field next door.
Coming out of the half with a 1-3 deficit, the sunny skies turned into a windy rainstorm and slowed down the match, creating a defensive slugfest that featured one more lone goal for the Utes and eventually led to a 1-4 final score.
The Bengals were credited with just three shots on the afternoon, but all of them were on goal.
Bengal Bites
Up Next
The Bengals return to action at home, with the next two outings at Davis Field. The Seattle University Redhawks will travel to Pocatello on Thursday, Sept. 19th, at 7pm, to close out ISU's non-conference schedule.
Following this, the Bengals will kick off Big Sky play against Northern Colorado on Sunday, Sept. 29th, at noon.
