MOSCOW, Idaho - The University of Idaho women's soccer team had a happy homecoming as they defeated Idaho State by the score of 2-1 on Guy Wicks Field Friday. In their first home game of the season, the Vandals (2-4-0) handed the Bengals (4-1-1) their first loss of the season and posted only the second win over ISU in the series.
"We were hoping to come out and send a message to teams coming onto our field that they are going to have to battle in order to beat us and I feel we accomplished that today," head coach Arby Busey said. "We came out with some fire and played really hard, which is something we didn't do earlier this week. We outworked our opponent and we are going to have to continue to do that in order to give ourselves a chance to win."
The fire in the Vandals was flamed in the 22nd minutes when a cross from Melissa Martinazzi was mishandled by a Bengal player, resulting in an ISU own goal and a 1-0 lead for the Vandals. Later in the first half, Aly South was able increase the lead when she connected on a goal at the 33:56 mark for her second goal of the season.
Finding themselves trailing by two to begin the second half, the Bengals put the pressure on Idaho, tallying 17 shots in the final period. Shawna Park made good on a direct kick as she scored the lone ISU goal at the 60:17 mark. Park finished with a game-high six shots. Vandal goalkeeper Lindsay Smith grabbed six of her 10 saves in the second half to hold the Bengals at bay.
"We got in early and got some good shots. We put some pressure on them early and created some opportunities for ourselves. In the second half we let down a little bit and dodged a lot of bullets late in the game. We need to work on staying the aggressor for the entire 90-minutes in order to keep getting results, but our attitude was a lot better than it was on Wednesday. We need to really work to maintain that attitude in every game," Busey said.
The Vandals were outshot 23-10 in the game and managed only one corner kick to ISU's five.
Idaho will now try to ride the momentum into Sunday, when they will take on No. 12 Pepperdine. The game begins at 1 p.m. and will be played on Guy Wicks Field in Moscow, Idaho.
