No one can say the Bears are not resilient.
On Friday afternoon in Boulder, Colo., Cal fought for 90 minutes, clawing its way back from a two-goal deficit to end regulation tied with an inferior Colorado squad.
Then the two teams — one that put in two rapid-fire goals and one that fought tooth and nail to tie the game — faced off to see who could send one more ball into the back of the net.
Within a minute and a half, that question was answered.
Cal’s Ariana Martinez sent a long cross to Lauren Battung on the weak side. Battung then took a chance and fired off a quick shot from distance. That gamble paid off, as the ball sailed beyond the goalkeeper and into the net.
That golden goal completed the No. 15 Bears’ hard-fought comeback — one that came as a surprise. Despite the discrepancy between the third place Bears and the 11th-place Buffs (6-5-3, 0-4-1), the Bears only narrowly eked out a 3-2 overtime victory.
The weekend started off shakily for the Bears, who quickly found themselves two goals behind within the first 15 minutes of the game against Colorado.
“We were disappointed to lose goals quickly and in the manner we lost them,” coach Neil McGuire said. “But the value we had was that we had time left to make up ground and our team did not panic, which was good to see.”
The situation looked dire for Cal (11-3, 4-1 in Pac-12), down early to the Buffs — a team that had not yet won a conference matchup.
“We asked our defenders to play more aggressively and higher up the field, and we asked our strikers to be more dangerous in the areas of Colorado’s back line,” McGuire said.
Those adjustments helped the Bears bounce back with a goal from freshman forward Ifeoma Onumonu in the 23nd minute. In the 63rd minute, Onumonu again knocked the ball into the back of the net to bring the score to a 2-2 tie.
The game remained tied through the end of regulation, and it wasn’t until the golden goal that the Bears sighed with relief.
While the Buffs gave the Bears an unanticipated battle, Sunday’s game against Utah was a change of pace. The Bears expected Sunday’s game against the Utes (7-4-2, 2-3-0 in Pac-12) to be the tougher, but the Bears soon put the game out of reach, 3-1.
Battung and Onumonu both also scored against the Utes, and the Bear’s final goal came in the 80th minute when Nina Pedersen put away a close range shot off an Onumonu assist.
Cal maintained the 3-0 lead into the last ten minutes of the game, but conceded one goal to the Utes with a mere three minutes left on the clock.
“Every team brings difference threats,” McGuire said. “Colorado’s ability on set pieces was difficult to deal with. Utah had different threats and we were able to quell them.”
Taylor Brinks covers women’s soccer. Contact her at [email protected]
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