Sept. 12, 2010
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Julie King scored her first two goals on the season, one in each half, as the No. 21-ranked Auburn soccer team defeated Cal State Fullerton, 2-0, on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles. The win improved Auburn's record to 5-2-0 while Cal State Fullerton dropped to 2-4-0.
"We felt like this was a must-win for us with our long-term goals of getting into the NCAA Tournament," Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. "The girls responded really great from Friday night. I thought our effort and our work-rate was better. We should have capitalized more, but we did a good job of getting two goals."
Auburn went up 1-0 in the 16th minute, capitalizing on a Cal State Fullerton foul of Jessica Rightmer. Katy Frierson took the free kick, slotting it to Gabi Rivera on the side line of the 18. She fired in a shot that hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced straight to the feet of an unmarked King, who finished the play with her first goal of the season. The assist was the 21st of Frierson's career, which tied her with Rebecca Howell for fifth on the Auburn career list, while it was the 10th in Rivera's career.
"Gabi had a great shot that I think the keeper tipped it into the crossbar and I was just in position to pop it in," King said. "Sunday games are always tough. Friday's game was a fight and to come out today, work hard and get the win was huge. We needed this one today. We needed to come out of the weekend with at least one win."
Mary Coffed nearly missed putting Auburn up by two moments later when she tried to go upper 90 from the flank but her shot went just high and wide of the Fullerton net. The shot was one of six that Auburn took in the first half while holding Fullerton to just two with neither goalkeeper making a save in the first 45 minutes.
"It really helped us to go into halftime with a lead. It was a great free kick play with Gabi running over the ball and Katy slipping her in." Hoppa said. "Julie made a well-timed run and it was massive for us to get one before half. It gave us a lot of confidence going into the second half where we came out really strong and pushed hard to get that second goal."
The first save of the match came just over a minute into the second half when Frierson drew a foul in the box, setting up Auburn's first penalty kick of the season. Rivera took the PK for Auburn but Fullerton goalkeeper Jordan Santos stopped the attempt, thwarting Auburn's opportunity to go build a two-goal lead midway through the match.
The crossbar cost Auburn another goal in the 64th minute when Rightmer's chance clanged off the pipe before Auburn finally broke through for its second goal in the 75th minute as King finished off an Auburn corner for her second goal of the match. Coffed served in the corner to Christine Schweer, who found King on the doorstep for her fifth career goal. The assist was Coffed's team-leading sixth of the year.
"Christine got in great position and put a foot on it and I was just in the right place at the right time with a chance to tap it in," King said.
"Julie is such a dangerous attacking player even though she is a back," Hoppa said. "That's why we send her forward on all the free kicks and corner kicks. She has such a good skill of finding the ball when it's in the air and on the ground and she was able to finish two for us today."
The shutout was the third of the year for Auburn.
Auburn finished with 12 shots to Fullerton's eight while Amy Howard had one save and Santos two.
Auburn returns home to play its final non-conference match of the regular season, playing host to Samford at 7pm on Friday, Sept. 17 at the Auburn Soccer Complex.