Gonzaga hands USD first loss of the conference season

Women’s soccer unable to contain the Bulldogs in a 3-0 defeat at home

Yana Kouretas / Contributor / The USD Vista

As the University of San Diego women’s soccer opened up their second match of the West Coast Conference at home, they were unable to hold onto the recent fortune from their 2-0 win at LMU. The University of Gonzaga Bulldogs bested them with a 3-0 shutout win, using their powerful shots and aggressiveness to coast right past the Toreros. 

The Bulldogs uncorked the first of what would total 12 first-half shots in the second minute, with a low, driven shot that sophomore goalkeeper Ellyn Casto barely deflected outside of the goal frame. Shortly after, in the fourth minute, another Bulldog shot from an opportunity taken from the outside flank left Casto scrambling. Gonzaga continued this pattern for a majority of the first half, exploiting the wings and beating the Torero defenders to get off low and clean shots from the edge of the box. 

Senior Katie Lapomarda, who started each half of the match, summed up the team’s pitfall that resulted in their defeat. 

“We gave it our all and came out short,” Lapomarda said. “We couldn’t execute, and that was just the biggest thing. We created a lot of opportunities, but they were constantly getting blocked or deflected.” 

Though the Toreros struggled to mitigate a steady stream of Bulldog shots, they too started strong and were almost able to match the Zags’ opportunities early in the first half. The Toreros’ first shot came in the 10th minute from Lapomarda, and soon after sophomore forward Bekah Valdez put another shot on target.

The Toreros looked like they were going to hold down the Bulldogs for the rest of the half, but they were eventually broken down. In the late 20th minute, Gonzaga fired a series of two shots; one that Casto punched wide with a diving save and another that barely skimmed the post to go out of bounds. The Bulldogs surged forward with this confidence and finally put away a goal five minutes before the half ended, obstructing the Toreros’ view of a scoreless half. It was one skillfully placed pass behind the Torero defense that allowed first-year forward Sydni Burrup a clear shot right past Casto.  

This moment of weakness was a turning point for the Toreros, according to Lapomarda. 

“After Gonzaga’s first goal, it was just a mentality thing,” Lapomarda said. “When they scored, it was kind of a reality check and made us realize that we needed to step up and start getting more into tackles and putting our bodies on the line.”

In the second half, the Toreros pursued a similar pattern, with a string of early chances starting in the 40th minute. Lapomarda struck a driving shot that was kept out by Bulldogs sophomore goalkeeper Lyza Bosselmann, resulting in a Torero corner. Although the corner service by senior midfielder Sami Weather wasn’t accurate enough to effect a substantial chance, it did mark one of six of the times the Toreros broke down the Bulldogs to produce a corner kick in the half.

At the 50th minute mark, the Bulldogs’ strength in the air shined when they were awarded a corner kick, only one of two that they earned in the whole half. The kicker expertly floated the ball right onto the target head of sophomore forward Erin Healy, who finished the opportunity. Within the next twenty minutes, the visitors did not afford the Toreros any more threatening opportunities and instead collected the final goal of the game. It was first-year forward Kate Doyle, who also assisted the previous goal, that scored from a lofted ball that she collected and drilled past the Toreros’ substitute goalkeeper, sophomore Sarah Young.

Despite a win looking more unreachable for the Toreros, it was clear that they maintained a strong mentality and kept their hearts in the game until the very end. The Toreros began to command the match in the last five minutes as they turned on the heat to earn four corner kicks in two minutes. It was first-year midfielder Leah Pirro who gave the Toreros their best prospects of the game when she got onto the end of a rapid header from the corner, which skimmed past the Bulldogs goalkeeper but didn’t have enough power to reach the back of the net. Pirro carried on this streak by cracking a shot in the final minute, which barely soared over the top of the goalpost, putting the Toreros’ total shot count at 13 to the Bulldogs’ 20. 

The Toreros will look to put this defeat behind them and redeem themselves as they go back on the road to face off against Saint Mary’s on Saturday, March 13 at noon.