Aggies Defeat Air Force to Advance to Third-Straight Mountain West Title Game
BOISE, Idaho — Utah State soccer (10-6-5, 5-2-3 MW) won an overtime thriller to punch its ticket to its third-straight Mountain West Tournament championship game Wednesday night at the Boas Soccer Complex in Boise, defeating 2-seed Air Force 1-0 in the semifinal round.
The Aggies used 97th minute heroics from sophomore midfielder Rachel Reitz, who scored the golden goal off of a corner kick sent into the box by graduate midfielder Rine Yonaha. After a single touch by freshman forward Kunie Hirai, who scored the team's lone goal in the quarterfinal round win over New Mexico, Reitz connected with a right-footer past the keeper. This was the first goal of Reitz's career.
In a game which began as a defensive battle, the sides combined for just four total shots with a single shot on goal in the first half of action. Utah State seemingly broke through in the 73rd minute when a foul called just outside of the 18-yard box resulted in a free kick, which was delivered cleanly into the top corner of the net by Yonaha. After the fact, however, a review of the foul was allowed which wiped the Aggie goal off the board.
Utah State held Air Force without a single shot on goal in the contest, out-shooting the Falcons 17-6 in total with a 6-0 advantage in shots on frame.
Read more at UtahStateAggies.com.
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