LA JOLLA, Calif. – With a strike right down the middle,
Madison Watts rifled Sonoma State's game-winning penalty kick into the back of the net before turning to the bench and sprinting towards her teammates to celebrate their walk-off victory over Chico State in PK shootouts Friday afternoon.
"I'm just so proud of the team. We've had a season of a lot of ups and downs and near misses, a lot of players having to step up and play different positions and be moved around. There's been a lot of pressure on this group," said head coach
Emiria Salzmann Dunn. "I was just so proud they were able to step up."
In a hard-fought game, Sonoma State came back from a first-half deficit to tie up the match with twenty minutes remaining in regulation before holding the Wildcats scoreless through two overtime periods and upsetting the tournament's No. 2 seed to head on to their second-straight CCAA Tournament Final.
After Chico took a 1-0 lead via Lauren Madero four minutes ahead of the break, Salzmann Dunn reassured her team that their style of play was working and they needed to keep it up through the second half.
"Sometimes when those things happen we lose a little confidence and you can see that dip, so I'm always good with a tough word to get them back in and focused again," she said with a grin. "We know 45 minutes is a long time and all it takes is a touch."
In their second period of play, Sonoma State took nine shots compared to their five in the first half, many of which created dangerous situations in front of the Chico goal.
Finally, in the 70th minute,
Bella Amyx found the equalizer.
"I was in midfield position, really just trying to attack," recalled the senior captain.
After winning a ball in the midfield, Julia Prichard opened up space on the right line where she eyed
Sarah Lindborg unmarked in on her left. With a ball through to the junior midfielder, Lindborg chipped the ball past three defenders to meet Amyx just inside the penalty area where she bodied out her only mark before taking a right-footed shot across her body to bury the attempt in the bottom-left corner.
"I just kind of hit it as hard as I could. I wasn't really placing it, but [I was] lucky enough to put that one away," said Amyx.
Neither team was able to inch ahead of their competitor before regulation expired, so for the second time in as many games, the Seawolves headed to golden-goal overtime. Through the two ten-minute periods each team only allowed one shot on goal, both of which were saved by their respective keepers.
Following 110 minutes of play, the game came down to a penalty shootout.
After each team's first attempts were denied,
Kristyn Lerma put her side up 1-0 in the second round. Chico's Nadiah Martinez found the back of the net but
Sarah Lindborg came out and converted her attempt to keep the 2-1 lead through three rounds. After a brilliant save by Spear on Sarah Emigh's shot, the Seawolves looked to
Madison Watts who closed the game out, scoring on her attempt.
"I was kind of smiling right before because I knew our goalkeeper,
Kristen Spear, had it in the bag," said Watts. "Her saving that [shot] before just gave me so much confidence walking up to drill it in."
Hanging on the edge of the regional rankings at No. 6, the Seawolves know that nothing is guaranteed looking past Sunday's Conference Final with UC San Diego and are taking everything one day at a time.
"Every game that we get to play is an honor. It's so fun to be playing out with these girls and I love this team so much," said Amyx. "I don't think our season is near being over, but believing in ourselves moving forward, I think it means a lot. It's just another day that we get to go out and train and play again and I love it."
In a rematch of 2017's CCAA Final, Sonoma State will be eying redemption from last year's 4-3 defeat to UCSD along with the conference title and the automatic berth to the NCAA Regional that it comes with. The two teams will kick off at 11:30 a.m. this Sunday at Triton Stadium.
