It’s been a long time coming for Long Beach State’s Cherrie Cox.
After being away from the Beach last season, Cox scored her first goal of the season to give the Beach a 1-0 lead over No. 19 Texas.
But, LBSU (1-1) couldn’t convert on multiple opportunities and the Longhorns scored twice in the second half to defeat the Beach 2-1 at George Allen Field Sunday night.
“I’m coming back from a lot of things,” Cox said about scoring. “It’s like a personal mission and finally getting one in after having a couple unfortunate chances, it’s giving that momentum to keep going.”
Long Beach State came out and dominated on the pitch outshooting the Longhorns 10-4 in the first half as Cox continued to show what she will bring to the team as she led the Beach with four shots.
“I thought we played very well,” Long Beach State coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “I thought we could have scored a couple more, a few more.”
The Beach’s defense continued to keep the Longhorns scoreless with Zoe Willis, Brooklyn Antonucci, Natalie Arnold and Auroura Schuck midway through the second half.
However, Texas broke through the LBSU defense as Audrey tied the game at 1-1 in the 65th minute. The Beach came right back with four straight shots, but Texas’s goalkeeper got her hand on everything that went her way finishing the game with a game-high 11 saves.
In the 80th minute, Sadie Hoch found herself all alone on scored to give Texas a 2-1 lead.
“We didn’t defend on a set piece,” Ingrassia said. “So that’s gonna eat at me all night.”
Although the Beach didn’t come away with the victory, LBSU’s attack has been a bright spot to start the year finishing with 20 shots.
“You can’t score goals if you don’t take shots,” Cox said. “It’s as simple as that. Keep taking shots, more goals. Eventually some are gonna come in and they’ll come when they count.”
“I think we can learn a lot from tonight,” Ingrassia added. “We just got to take this and take the good, fix the bad and move on. I think we showed a lot tonight.”
After starting their season at home, the Beach will head to the Pacific Northwest as they take on Washington and Portland. LBSU will wrap up their 3-game road trip when they take on UCLA on August 29th.
