After a difficult match at Santa Clara on Friday that ended in a hard-fought 1-1 draw, the No. 12-ranked Cal women’s soccer team (6-0-2) rebounded Sunday morning with a 4-2 victory over St. Mary’s College (3-7-0).
Cal coach Neil McGuire’s side came out in a 4-3-3 formation. Outside backs Genessee Daughetee and Celeste Martore stood out from the start, intercepting a number of St. Mary’s passes and getting forward well to support the Cal attack.
“Our outside backs like to get forward, so at times (our formation) almost turns in a 2-5-3,” McGuire said.
With Daughetee and Martore commanding the flanks and California’s midfield trio dictating the tempo from the get-go, Cal got on board with an early goal in the ninth minute. Sophomore forward Ifeoma Onumonu received a long throw-in, swiftly turned her defender and fired a Drogba-esque volley into the top-right corner of the net to give her team a 1-0 lead and boost her season tally to six.
Onumonu nearly put in a second goal in the 17th minute when she fought her way through a series of St. Mary’s defenders only to drive her low shot just wide of the net. A series of substitutions by both coaches followed, and in the 24th minute, Cal’s young forward had yet another chance to score, this time drilling her close-range shot directly at SMC goalkeeper Kaeli Schmidt, who saved it easily.
Sensing a second goal was within reach, Cal picked up its play, and in the 25th minute, the squad was rewarded. Taylor Comeau displayed her excellent technique and vision to play a nice ball out wide to an onrushing Samantha Witteman, who calmly slotted the ball into the upper-right corner of the goal.
Cal maintained its strong play through the end of the half and entered the locker room up 2-0. Goalkeeper Emily Kruger had not been bothered at all, aside from picking out a few stray corner kicks, and St. Mary’s was struggling to string passes together outside of its own defensive third.
The first 15 minutes of the second half saw a dramatic turnaround, as St. Mary’s players came out with a feistiness that was absent in the first 45 minutes. They scored two goals to tie the score and silence the nearly 500 fans in attendance, with Melinda Madden and Melissa Madrid scoring their first and second goals of the season, respectively. Madden’s long-range strike was especially impressive, flying into the top-left corner of the net just past the diving Kruger’s fingertips. With the score at 2-2, the outcome of the game was suddenly in question.
Witteman would ultimately come to Cal’s rescue, however, as the standout sophomore poked in two goals during the last 15 minutes of the game to regain her team’s lead and seal her first hat trick for the blue and gold. Her tap-in off of Schmidt’s save of a Comeau effort gave Cal a 3-2 edge, and her volley in the 81st minute off of a well-placed Daughetee cross guaranteed the victory.
Witteman worked in the offseason to improve her scoring ability, and she expressed excitement at her performance in front of goal after the game.
“I didn’t score any goals last season, so it’s been really awesome to score some this season,” Witteman said. “It feels awesome, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my teammates.”
With a number of strong attacking options at its disposal and a stiff defense anchored by senior captains Kruger and Emi Lawson, Cal’s undefeated streak seems unlikely to end anytime soon.
Josh Netter covers women’s soccer. Contact him at [email protected].