Two goals by Weber State freshman midfielder Tiffany Foerster in less than two minutes in the second half lifted the Wildcats to a 3-2 victory over Hawaii last night at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park Stadium. [ UH SOCCER ]
Foerster’s goals
deflate Wahine
By Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comThe Wahine played the match without their top two scorers, strikers Arlene Devitt, sitting out due to a red card, and Natasha Kai, down with flu-like symptoms. This meant UH coach Pinsoom Tenzing had to improvise. Instead of three strikers, he went with two, moving Mia Moe up top to partner with Carmen Calpo.
"I thought Tia Medeiros did a remarkable job setting up the two strikers," said Tenzing. "We played well enough to win, but made two bad mistakes in the back. But, I need to give those players experience. I think we've got things sorted out."
The nonconference match began as an end-to-end, side-to-side sprint as the teams traded offensive probes but failed to produce anything dangerous inside the 18-yard box.
Hawaii got the first break when Medeiros pounced on a loose ball near the center circle and served an accurate ball to Calpo. The freshman striker from Pearl City High went in all alone on Weber State goalkeeper Kandice Golar and guided the ball inside the right post from 14 yards out at 13:48.
A free kick by UH defender Seline Williams from the right sideline rolled through a host of players in the 6-yard box untouched and just missed catching the far post.
The Wildcats tied the score at 47:15 when Kaleen Grant took a rebound off the crossbar from Rochelle Hoover's 30-yard attempt and beat UH goalkeeper Mahie Atay from 7 yards away.
The Wahine came right back at 51:50 when Calpo centered a ball to an unmarked Moe just inside the 18-yard line. The junior had time to set up her shot and beat Golar with a low drive inside the left post for her first UH score.
Calpo sent Moe through again at 58:38, but Golar made a diving save to her left on the 22-yard shot.
Hawaii (2-5-2) missed two great opportunities within seconds when Kalena Eaton's head shot caught the crossbar at 71:15 and moments later Golar dove to her left to snare Eaton's 22-yarder at 71:36.
The Wildcats (4-4-1) responded by tying the score at 2 when Foerster twirled out of a pack of defenders and left-footed a shot into the upper left corner at 72:43.
Foerster then intercepted a poorly played ball in the middle of the field by Kelly McCloskey and beat Atay inside the left post from 15 yards at 74:28.
Golar was in perfect position to grab Moe's short header off Joelle Sugai's cross at 84:38. That would be UH's final attempt at scoring.
The teams play again tomorrow at 5 p.m.
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