Cal Poly Women’s Soccer (4-3-3, 1-0-1 Big West) drew against Cal State Long Beach on Saturday night, placing them in a five-way tie for first place in the Big West standings.
The match was Cal Poly’s second conference game of the season, and they walked away from the first week with four points.
Long Beach struck first with a goal by forward Cherrie Cox, after a cross by The Beach deflected off a Cal Poly player. Cox leads the Big West with 12 goals.
Head Coach Bernardo Silva said the Mustangs pride themselves on their good defense against opposing teams’ highest offensive generators.
“Up until this point in the season, I felt really good about us stopping teams’ best players,” Silva said.
Cal Poly’s strategy entering the game to prevent Long Beach’s powerhouse goal scorer from getting one past Mustang goalkeeper Shannon Porubski was to stop Cox from having time with the ball.
“We talked a lot about… making sure that [Cox] doesn’t have… time to make decisions and take shots,” Silva said.
Despite Cal Poly’s eight shots throughout the first half, they did not get on the scoreboard until the 54th minute when midfielder Miah Thomas scored on a penalty kick.
After referees reviewed a play on the field, it was determined that The Beaches’ Kylie Perez fouled Mustang forward Isis Salazar-Ortega in the penalty box, awarding Cal Poly a penalty kick.
“I just had to keep my composure, and honestly, just think of the team,” Thomas said. “I know we were working our butts off at that point, and had to come off with some type of result.”
Thomas scored her fifth goal of the season, leading the Mustangs and moving her into third place in the Big West.
For Thomas, awareness of her goal-scoring success is “motivation” to get into more opportunities to continue scoring.
The draw continues the Mustangs’ streak of being undefeated at Spanos Stadium since August 16 after a 0-1 loss to No.1 Stanford.
Silva and Thomas credit the success at home to the atmosphere the fans bring to Spanos. An atmosphere that Thomas says gives the team an edge over their opponents.
Next, Cal Poly will continue Big West play with two away games against Cal State Fullerton and UC San Diego. However, they may be down a player, with the status of captain and midfielder Sophia Minnite still up in the air.
In the 86th minute of Saturday’s match, Minnite went down and exited the game with a left knee injury. She is set to undergo further evaluation to determine the extent of the injury.
“Fingers crossed, sending a prayer today, and some good energy that it’s not a season-ending injury because she’s an important part of the puzzle,” Silva said.
The Mustangs will take on Fullerton on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 6 p.m. in Titan Stadium.