Oregon State
Washington
No. 3/3 Washington Tops Oregon State 1-0
October 15, 2013 | Men's Soccer
SEATTLE, Wash. – The Oregon State men's soccer team came up just short Monday evening, as the Beavers fell to No. 3/3 Washington 1-0 at Husky Soccer Stadium in Seattle, Wash.
“I'm absolutely gutted for our guys,” said head coach Steve Simmons. “I thought that we were the better team on the night. You're talking about going into a difficult environment, in a Pac-12 game, against a highly ranked team, and our guys were tremendous. We deserved no less than a tie tonight, if not a win.”
Oregon State (7-5-0, 0-3-0 Pac-12) had an early scoring chance, when freshman Michael Steele played a low cross that made it all the way across the face of goal. Junior Mike Reckmeyer got his foot to the ball inside the six-yard box, but Husky goalkeeper Ryan Herman made a sprawling save to keep the score level at zero.
Washington (9-0-3, 2-0-1 Pac-12) tallied the game's only goal in the 32nd minute. Michael Harris launched a long throw-in into the box from the right side of the field, which Cristian Roldan headed into the net from close range to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.
Oregon State came close to leveling the score late in the opening frame. Senior Borce Atanasov fired a shot from 12 yards out that was tipped by Herman, before rattling the crossbar and bouncing out of play, and the Beavers entered the intermission trailing by one.
After battling through a hard-fought second half, Oregon State had one last chance to tie it up in the dying moments of regulation. Freshman Brendan Woodfull played a cross across the face of goal, but Oregon State was unable to get the final touch needed to level the score, and the Huskies took the 1-0 victory.
“I think the thing for us was that we needed to be more clinical in front of goal,” Simmons said. “We certainly created chances. On the Washington side, it came down to one flip-throw that led to the goal. I think we defended the throw-ins really well all night, but in the end, they played the percentages and one got in.”
Oregon State will return home this week to take on No. 6/5 UCLA Friday at 1 p.m.
