Cougars score early, score often, win 6-0

Friday, August 30

Pullman, Wash.

8 PM (MT)

Montana

0-1-2

Washington State

2-0-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Montana	0	0	0
Washington State	3	3	6

Photo by: Dean Hare/Washington State Unive

8/30/2019 11:46:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

A record crowd of nearly 3,000 made its way to Washington State's Lower Soccer Field on Friday evening in Pullman and almost all of them went away happy after watching the No. 23 Cougars top Montana 6-0.

Washington State (2-0-0) scored three goals in the first half, three more in the second and outshot the Grizzlies 26-3 to hand Montana (0-1-2) its worst loss since falling 7-0 at New Mexico to open the 2010 season.

"Some of the goals they scored, I don't know if anyone else is going to do that to us this year," said second-year coach Chris Citowicki. "They were taking shots I'd give anybody and still pounding the ball with such power.

"When you play in this game and you see those goals go in, it wasn't a mental breakdown or a technical mistake. It was just an incredible goal. We came across a machine and the machine took care of us. We came across a very, very good team that is going to do very well this year."

It was Morgan Weaver, first-team All-Pac-12 last season, who set the tone for the night.

Before the match was four minutes old, she took a lead pass up the right side from Makamae Gomera-Stevens and outran Montana's defenders to the ball. She had a tough angle on the goal but scored anyway.

She made it 2-0 in the 12th minute when she rose up near the far post and headed in a cross from Gomera-Stevens.

A goal off a corner kick in the 24th minute made it 3-0.

"It's partially my fault," said Citowicki. "We had two game plans and I decided to go with the more aggressive one to see if we could play a little bit and hold our own. They pulled us apart pretty quickly."

Even facing a more conservative formation in the second half, Washington State scored in the 47th, 59th and 76th minutes.

The 13 shots the Cougars took in the first half were matched by the 13 they took in the second.

"For us to drop into a 5-4-1 after being told on a whiteboard (at halftime) what to do and execute it as relatively well as we did in the second half, I'm pretty happy with it," said Citowicki.

"I don't know of any other opponents who would be able to break that shape down."

Half of Washington State's shots were on goal, meaning Griz goalkeeper Claire Howard was under siege for 90 minutes. She made seven saves, a few of them quite spectacular.

Fourteen players took shots for the Cougars, who would finish the match holding 59 percent of the possession. Of that time with the ball, nearly 70 percent of it was spent in Montana's end of the field.

"Claire made a couple of saves that were incredible and on a day she wasn't feeling well," said Citowicki.

Rita Lang actually took the match's first shot, which she sent wide of goal in the opening minute.

Montana's best chance came in the 31st minute, when Zoe Transtrum got the ball in the box and put solid foot to ball. Ella Dederick dove to her left and made the save, the only one required to record the shutout.

The Grizzlies' only other shot came in the 86th minute, when Kennedy Yost had a good look at the goal from 15 yards out but sent it wide right.

Montana will face Gonzaga (2-1-0) in Spokane on Sunday at 2 p.m. (MT).

"We came away with a list of things we already talked about and other things we're going to remember, because you have to learn from everything and apply it to the next one," said Citowicki.