Aggies move to fourth place in the Big West league
By Megan Joseph — sports@theaggie.org
With a full energetic stadium, the Aggies took on the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Rainbow Warriors. Coming from far away, the Rainbow Warriors came ready to play and tried to dominate the Aggies on their own field, but they were no match for the Aggie’s offense and defense.
Starting the game off strong, the Aggies took as many shots as they could that eventually led to a goal. In the 23rd minute of the game, third-year Risa Yamada passed the ball to teammate and third-year Sam Tristan who then shot the ball into the back of the net. This goal marked Tritan’s fifth goal of the season and was just the start of the Aggie’s outstanding performance against the Rainbow Warriors.
Not even a minute after the first goal of the game, fourth-year Leslie Fregoso got her chance when she broke away from the opposing defense and took a brilliant corner shot that no goalie could stop. Fregoso has had a strong start to her season — only a few weeks ago, she was named UC Davis’ leading goal scorer of all time in the Division I period.
With such an award, Fregoso definitely lived up to the expectations in this game with her distribution of the ball and goal. Although the soccer season ends in almost a month, Fregoso still has plenty of games left to break more records and score more goals.
The first half of the game ended with the Aggies holding their lead 2-0. Throughout the first half of the game, the Aggies held control of the ball and took the most shots at the Rainbow Warrior’s goal. The Rainbow Warrior’s goalie, Kennedy Justin, blocked a majority of the Aggie’s shots but that did not stop the Aggies from taking ten shots on goal and sneaking a couple of goals in.
The second half of the game proved to be a little more challenging for the Aggies with the Rainbow Warrior’s newfound confidence and comeback. In the 50th minute of the game, the Rainbow Warriors found their opening in the Davis defense and shot the ball into the net.
The Aggies definitely started to feel the stress after the Rainbow Warrior’s goal but did not let it stop them. Only about a minute after the opposing goal, the Aggies counterattacked with their own goal which would be the final Davis goal of the game. Fregoso, using her footwork, set the ball up for Yamada to nail the ball into the back of the Rainbow Warrior’s net.
The entire stadium broke out in cheers for the duo and their incredible teamwork. Both players did a good job of staying calm and focused on finding their offensive breakaway to the goal.
The Rainbow Warriors made one final attempt at stopping the Aggies from pulling out their sixth win of the season. In the 54th minute of the game, following both of the recent goals, the Rainbow Warriors received a penalty kick from a foul in the box. Rainbow Warrior Mia Foster took the penalty kick for her team and narrowly hit the ball into the top left corner away from the Aggie goalie, third-year Caeley Goldstein. Goldstein played very well all game while not letting the ball past her into the Aggie goal.
Although two Aggies received yellow cards during the second half of the game by Fregoso and second-year Livi Lewis, the Aggies were still unstoppable and beat the Rainbow Warriors with a final score of 3-2. This game is just one of many wins the Aggies are likely to have in store for the remainder of the season.
Written by: Megan Joseph — sports@theaggie.org
