Cal State Stanislaus scored four goals in eight second-half minutes to hand the SF State women’s soccer team a shocking 4-0 loss that spoiled the Gator’s senior day Sunday at Cox field.
“I am still honestly in shock about it,” said senior defender Tamerra Griffin.
The Gators played the Warriors evenly through 67 minutes in their final home game of the season. In fact, SF State appeared to have the advantage until the Warriors broke open a remarkable scoring flurry.
“They’re not four goals better than us. We definitely could have had just as many if we would have just executed,” said assistant coach Stephanie Wieger.
The teams traded chances for the majority of the match. Statistically, the match appeared very even. Each team took 15 shots on the day.
The Gators had a number of opportunities to take a 1-0 lead early in the match.
Senior forward Kiley Williams, freshman Justine Hernandez and sophomore Kristen Powers had prime chances for goals that fell short.
“If we would have actually finished the many opportunities we had…I think if we would have scored earlier they would never have come at us the way they did,” Wieger said.
SF State stifled the Warrior attack for over an hour of play.
“We had them shut down, their key player taken care of. They couldn’t do anything,” Griffin said.
Then in the 67th minute the wheels inexplicably came off.
Stanislaus star forward Karenee Demery had been kept largely in check throughout the game. Paired one-on-one for much of the match, Griffin was able to keep Demery out of the action. That is until the 67th minute Demery broke a stunning run from near midfield that saw her blow by one defender, stop to fake two more at the top of the box and fire a shot into the top corner to put the Warrios up 1-0.
Six minutes later Warrior midfielder April Whitney headed home a corner kick by Marissa Dunaway.
Just thirty seconds later a driven ball got lost in the sea of bodies in front of goal and deflected off a Gator defender for an own goal.
Just when the Gators thought things could not get any worse, Demery found space behind the reeling defense off of a cross from Dunaway to make the tally 4-0.
The entire barrage took less than eight minutes.
“It took one misstep and we couldn’t recover from it. They just kept coming at us and coming at us and coming at us,” Griffin said.
The Gator defense had allowed just seven goals in 12 games coming in to the matchup.
The game mirrors a 4-1 defeat to Stanislaus during the SF State’s 2010 campaign. For some reason this Warrior team just seems to have the Gator’s number.
“It’s almost like voodoo or something, they for some reason manage to get underneath our skin,” Griffin said.
The Gators hope to shake off the loss and qualify for the postseason with a stong finish on their season ending four-game road trip starting Friday.