No. 8 UCSD Women Roll Over Jacks, 4-0
LA JOLLA, Calif. - A four-goal second-half barrage sent the No. 8 University of California San Diego women's soccer team past Humboldt State, 4-0, in a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) contest at Triton Soccer Stadium on Sunday.
UC San Diego's fifth straight victory moved it to 8-2 overall while keeping it a perfect 4-0 in the CCAA. The Tritons sit in a three-way tie for second, three points behind Sonoma State. Humboldt State dropped to 2-8-1 overall and 1-4-1 in league play.
Fifth-year senior and second-year co-captain Kiera Bocchino's fourth career two-goal brace was sandwiched in between fellow senior Jamie Benedetto's opening winner just 14 seconds after the second-half whistle, and a capper by junior striker Katie O'Laughlin (Carlsbad/Pacific Ridge School). The last three goals all came within a span of 5:02 between the 52nd and 57th minutes to clinch the result.
O'Laughlin’s goal was her CCAA- and indeed West Region-leading ninth of 2016. Fellow local product, junior winger Jordyn McNutt (San Diego/University City HS), assisted on each of the final three tallies to take over the CCAA lead, from sophomore teammate Mary Reilly (Chula Vista/Hilltop HS), with eight. She has paced the league in helpers in each of her first two seasons as a Triton.
Senior Itzel Gonzalez had three saves to notch her sixth individual shutout, and second in a row.
Senior center back and co-captain Meghan Berry (Austin, Texas/San Diego Miramar College/Mt. Carmel HS) received the ball from the second-half kickoff and hit it deep, with Bocchino corralling on the left side and sending a cross on the ground. Benedetto connected at the far post, sending her shot back across the goal mouth.
At 51:51, it was 2-0, with strong lead-up play along the right flank by McNutt and then O'Laughlin helping to find Bocchino alone around the six-yard box. She placed her effort perfectly into the bottom left corner, just beyond the goalkeeper's reach.
Within a minute, McNutt found Bocchino, again going from right to left. As she's known to do, Bocchino showed her flair for the aesthetic goal, taking a touch before curling her right-footed shot from just outside the penalty box toward the left side, into the upper right corner.
O'Laughlin had the final say at 56:53. McNutt threw the ball in from the right touch line to Reilly, who crossed from there. O'Laughlin made no mistake with the finish, low at the near post.
A scoreless first half was at times nervy for the home side. Just over six minutes in, Alex Jenkins came in on a breakaway one-on-one, only to be denied by Gonzalez, who went down to her right to make the save. In the 37th, HSU's Bridget Daley launched a long-distance shot that came back off the crossbar, with teammate Jacquelyn Dompier first to react to the rebound. She put her shot low toward the left corner, but hit it a little too soft, enabling Gonzalez to recover on her goal line and range over to make the kick save and keep matters level.
Less than a minute later, UCSD earned a penalty after junior Taylor Ramos (San Diego/Coronado HS) dribbled into the box and caused a hand ball against MaKenna Dunn. Berry's shot went wide to the left, however, for the Tritons' second missed spot kick of 2016. Berry had converted her only other try, at Central Washington.
The final shots margin was 22-6, with UCSD reaching the 20-shot plateau for the fourth time. Freshman Alex Dumas had six stops in goal for the Jacks.
UC San Diego heads to the Bay Area in the coming week to play at SF State on Friday, Oct. 7, and then at Cal State Monterey Bay on Sunday, Oct. 9.
Triton Notes: UCSD has scored two or more goals in six successive games, with a high for its NCAA Division II era of eight such efforts in a row coming in the very first year back in 2000 ... Kiera Bocchino's brace was her second of the year, having also scored twice against Regis on Sept. 9, and she now has a career-best six goals after tallying three in 2013, four in 2014 and five in 2015 ... Bocchino, who wears No. 18, has 18 career strikes ... The opening goal served as Jamie Benedetto's first career game-winner ... Jordyn McNutt turned in the first three-assist game by a Triton since Sara Bolton in the 2010 opener on Sept. 2, and now has five multi-assist games for her career, including two this year, and 25 collegiate assists ... Junior starting central midfielder Elisa Martinez (El Cajon/Francis Parker School) returned from Mexico City on Saturday following the conclusion of her second training camp with the Mexico U-20 national team, but did not appear in the match.
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