Montana stuns Long Beach with late goal

Thursday, September 16

Long Beach, Calif.

8 PM (MT)

Montana

4-4-0

Long Beach State

3-3-1

Montana

Long Beach State

Photo by: Derek Johnson

9/17/2021 12:04:00 AM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The improbability of the result can be seen through two sets of numbers: 26-4 and 65-35.

The first: Long Beach State's advantage in shots taken in Montana's 1-0 victory over the Beach, a team receiving votes in the national poll, on Thursday night in LBSU's home opener in front of a festive crowd of 644.

The second: Long Beach State's advantage in time of possession, a lopsided metric that usually suggests a 4-0 type of victory.

But that's the beauty of sports.

The longer the Grizzlies kept having defensive success -- because through it all, only six of those 26 shots were actually put on goal -- the more confident they became. And as the match moved along, still scoreless, the more frustrated the Beach got.

And that set up one magical moment, when a goal kick from Camellia Xu, who collected her fourth shutout in Montana's last five matches, made its way past midfield to the foot of Taylor Stoeger.

She played a through ball that split two Long Beach defenders, freeing up Sydney Haustein for a breakaway goal in the 86th minute that gave Montana its second victory over a regionally ranked opponent in the last five days, this time on the road.

It was Haustein's team-leading fourth goal of the season.

Let's see that from start to finish. How many great touches can you count? pic.twitter.com/4Y3HUbjo3D
— Montana Griz Soccer 🐻⚽️ (@MontanaGrizSOC) September 17, 2021

"We finally got our chance. Taylor's perfect ball, Sydney's run and we won the game with it," said Griz coach Chris Citowicki. "It couldn't have been scripted any better. It's beautiful.

"To be in this environment, in this atmosphere, in front of all these people and get the result is amazing."

Citowicki knew that Long Beach State had gone to Pepperdine and knocked off the No. 8 Waves earlier in the season, still their only loss, and had played now No. 3 UCLA to a 1-0 game.

But he still wasn't quite prepared for the early onslaught his team would face by a bunch of talented Californians, who are much better in the flesh than they are on the video screen.

"I didn't realize how good they were. They are a lot better in person than they are in film. They are really good," he said. "Within 10 minutes I knew we were going to be defending the whole game."

Montana, which couldn't maintain possession long enough to move the ball up the field, went the final 29 minutes of the first half without a shot. The Grizzlies were on the ropes for long stretches.

But Xu was there, making four saves through the first 45 minutes to send her team to the locker room in a scoreless draw in a match that felt anything but even.

"When we played South Carolina (in April in the NCAA tournament), we said if we could keep the game 0-0 for as long as possible, we would try to win it in the last 10 minutes," said Citowicki.

"We said it before the game and at halftime. Keep it 0-0 for as long as you can." The Gamecocks would score in the 57th minute and hold off the Grizzlies for a 1-0 victory.

But that goal never materialized for the favored team on Thursday night. Despite all the possession advantage, Long Beach only put two of its 13 second-half shots on goal. The Beach were desperate for a breakthrough, and it never came.

"At halftime, we just said we're going to tweak this little thing here and we're just going to sit on this, then come the 80th minute, we're going to start taking risks," said Citowicki.

That in itself signifies a massive sea change for a program that would have been more than thrilled to hang on for a 0-0 draw against an opponent like Long Beach in its first seasons under Citowicki.

Now pat-on-the-back results no longer cut it. The Grizzlies are out for the win, no matter the other team on the field.

"We said we're going to put people in more advanced positions, like Sydney. We took her from more of a holding mid role to an attacking mid role and said let's just make runs in behind," said Citowicki.

"We had to take some risks at some point if we wanted to win the game."

The play happened so quickly, from Xu to Stoeger to a streaking Haustein, that it took everyone by surprise.

That went from surprise to shock as Haustein's shot got past LBSU goalkeeper Morgan Houston-Shepherd and rolled into the center of the goal. Heads dropped in unison and the body language of the players in white said, what just happened?

Nearby: jubilation as the Grizzlies dog-piled Haustein.

The Beach pressed hard the final four minutes. A ball went off the crossbar, another off the post. There was a final-minute corner kick when Long Beach put everyone, including its goalkeeper, in the box. As they did all match, the Grizzlies didn't break, no matter the amount of pressure applied.

"I was still questioning if we're going to be good defending," said Citowicki. "Can we actually defend against a good team? So this is absolutely massive.

"We were still trying to find out what the identity of this group is. How strong are they? For them to pull this off, it was a total team performance."

Montana played as one. And that topped every other number out there.