IRVINE, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans women's soccer team got back on track with a 5-2 victory over UC Irvine at Anteater Field on Wednesday night.
The Titans improved to 10-3-5 overall and 7-1-2 in conference play. The UVU Wolverines beat Long Beach State on Wednesday to clinch a share of the Big West title. The Titans are second with 23 points while the UC San Diego Tritons are third with 21 points. A Titan's victory on Saturday over CBU with a Utah Valley lost against CSUN could see the Titans potentially clinch a share of the title. The Titans also need to stay ahead of UC San Diego to earn a first round bye to the semifinal. If the Titans and Tritons finish the same on points, the Tritons would earn the second seed over the Titans due to the first tiebreaker which is head-to-head result.
This was the first Titans win at UC Irvine since 10.17.2008 and the first Titans win there in eight attempts since 2008.
The Titans scored five goals to match the conference high in goals set earlier against UC Santa Barbara. The Titans outshot the Anteaters 17-to-10. The Titans also had five unique goal scorers as
Skye Johnson,
Camryn Cruz,
Sail Bozinovic,
Caroline Hicks, and
Riley O'Brien got on the score sheet.
After an even first half, the Titans got on board first in the 43rd minute. After a VAR review for a potential ball in the box, the Titans were given a penalty upon review. The Captain,
Skye Johnson stepped up and drilled her second goal of the season to make it 1-0 heading into halftime.
The Titans put their foot on the gas pedal in the second scoring four of their five goals.
Camryn Cruz made it 2-0 in the 59th minute after finishing a cross from
Cassie Villanueva. This was Villanueva's 17th goal contribution of the season as well
Camryn Cruz's fifth goal of the season.
A few minutes later,
Sail Bozinovic made it a 3-0 game. She stole a ball in the defensive third and beat three UCI defenders for her fourth goal of the season.
The Anteaters got a goal back in the 75th minute to make it 3-1. The Titans however responded with two more goals.
In the 83rd minute,
Jenna Rivera played a ball up to
Caroline Hicks who finished with a one timed shot past the keeper for her first collegiate goal.
In the 86th minute, after a foul from about 35 yards out. The Irvine native,
Riley O'Brien bended in a perfect free kick to the upper 90 to make it 5-1.
The Anteaters got one more goal back in the 87th minute to make it 5-2 but the Titan were able to see out the rest of the game.
Both sides need to win as the Titans are looking to lock up their Big West semifinals berth while the Lancers of CBU are sitting tied for fourth place looking to lock up their spot in the top six.
SUPPORT THE TITANS!
Fans can purchase tickets for various Cal State Fullerton athletic events by visiting
FullertonTitansTickets.com. The Athletic Ticket Office can also be contacted by phone at 657-278-2783 or by email at
athletictixs@fullerton.edu.
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+
Titans fans can now watch every home event exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for all games at Titan Stadium. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on ESPN+ for all road conference games.
FOLLOW THE TITANS!
Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), Twitter (@FullertonTitans), Instagram (FullertonTitans), YouTube (
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Apple at Beyond the Tusks. In addition, the women's soccer team has established its own Twitter (@FullertonWSOC) and Instagram accounts (@FullertonWSOC).
