Utah Soccer Rallies on Road, Beats Cal 2-1

Sunday, October 21

Berkeley, CA

1:30 PM

University of Utah

8-7-1, 5-3-0Pac-12

California

5-9-2, 1-6-1Pac-12

Utah

California

10/21/2018 4:54 PM | Soccer

Box Score Utah 2 Cal 1

Utes score twice in first 10 minutes of second half to turn game around

BERKELEY, Calif. – Utah Soccer rallied on the road for its first win ever over Cal this afternoon, 2-1

The Golden Bears took an early lead through Abigail Kim but after halftime, the Utes quickly reversed the score through Makayla Christensen and Paola van der Veen.

"It was a tale of two halves," head coach Rich Manning said "We did not start well and Cal jumped on us. At half, we talked about coming out with better energy and being more aggressive. We took it to them for the first 20 minutes of the half by playing with energy and pressure."

The Utes had a couple of chances early with Van der Veen missing wide and having a try blocked. Ireland Dunn also went wide before Kim put Cal on the board. Miranda Nild slid a pass through to Kim who took advantage of a 1v1 situation in the 17^th minute.

The first half remained evenly played with the one shot on goal being the difference after 45 minutes.

"I think this game says a lot about us," Dunn said. "The first half we had, we went in trailing and said we have to keep our minds in the game. We need to play to our potential every game and we cannot let our energy level drop. We came out with the necessary fire in the second half."

Utah started the second half with Max Flom firing wide but within five minutes, it had an equalizer. Dunn got the ball out wide and fired a shot in off the post. Luckily, Christensen was right there to fire home the rebound from a few feet, her third of the season.

Christensen almost put the Utes in front when her try was saved in the 53^rd minute but moments later, they got the goal. Dunn dribbled to the end line and was able to cut it back for Van der Veen who finished inside the near post for her team-leading seventh goal of the season.

Cal's best chance at tying the score was in the final minute. Cal took a corner kick short and Anja Koehler crashed a header off the crossbar. The rebound was cleared out of the penalty area and the Golden Bears served the ball back in before it rolled out of play as time expired.

"We knew our first game this weekend was going to be tough, but we had two days to regenerate and get our minds right," Dunn added. "We had time to practice and focus on Cal. We knew it was going to be a rough one, playing on the road, in the afternoon, in the heat. We had never won here so we had to be ready for a battle."

"We are playing with a lot of confidence and we will continue to do what we have been doing," Manning stated. "We have had a lot of success because we are trying to improve on doing all the little things better."

NOTES: Dunn entered the weekend leading the Pac-12 in conference play with three assists and added two more today … Her nine points also ranked fourth in the conference … Van der Veen ranked eighth in the Pac-12 with six goals entering the weekend; she now has 15 tallies the last two years … Before today, Utah was 0-7-3 all-time against Cal … Utah has a pair of top 10 teams coming to Ute Field to close its home schedule next weekend … The Utes play No. 9 UCLA on Thursday at 7 p.m. and welcome No. 2 USC on Sunday at noon … The game against the Bruins will be a Ute Blackout