CEDAR CITY, Utah — Senior Ariana Scholten's first goal of the season gave Sacramento State the early lead, but host Southern Utah got a pair of goals from leading scorer Whitney Gardner — one in each half — to push the Thunderbirds past the Hornets, 2-1, on Thursday afternoon in Cedar City, Utah.
The result moved Sacramento State to 2-4-3 overall on the year while Southern Utah improved to 2-5-2 for the season, snapping a three-match winless streak in the process.
Scholten's first goal of the 2024 campaign came just 16 minutes into Thursday's content, turning a misplay by the Thunderbird defense into a 1-0 lead.
Senior Cassandra Herrman got the sequence started with a long ball played ahead from midfield that took a bounce and fell into a "Bermuda Triangle" of players inside the 18-yard box — two Southern Utah defenders, the Thunderbirds' goalkeeper, and a pair of Hornet attackers.
One of those defenders tried to clear the ball away, but could only nick the ball and send it into no man's land at the top of the six. There, Scholten won a foot race with two defenders bearing down on her and she fired it home to the middle of the net for the 1-0 lead.
The score was Scholten's second career goal as a Hornet and her first since netting the game-tying score at Idaho State on Oct. 15 of last season.
That lead was safe until the 29th minute when Gardner came up with the equalizer from distance at the top left corner of the 18, playing short on a corner kick, turning to her right and lofting a shot that cleared the defense and fell into the right side of the net, tying the match at 1-1.
Gardner then needed only 10 minutes into the second half to give her side the lead for good, taking a perfectly placed pass from Sarah Assumma at the left side of the box and chipping it to the upper left side at a sharp angle for the 2-1 advantage.
Now chasing a goal, Sacramento State had two golden opportunities to tie the match. The first came in the 78th minute as Herrman caught the right post with her attempt off a free kick from about 25 yards out and the second came in the 81st minute as
Danna Restom's attempt deflected off the crossbar from about eight yards out on the right side.
Southern Utah out-shot the Hornets, 14-9, for the match, but the two teams could only combine for seven shots on frame. Scholten, Restom, and
Abigail Lopez each finished with two shots apiece.
Sacramento State is now off until opening Big Sky Conference play on the road next week, heading to Idaho for a 6 p.m. start on Friday (Sept. 27) and a 1 p.m. kick-off at Eastern Washington on Sunday (Sept. 29).
