LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 20th-ranked UC San Diego women's soccer team got a goal from Natasha Belak-Berger at the 53:06 mark and held on for a narrow 1-0 victory over visiting Cal Poly Pomona Saturday night in front of 551 fans at Triton Soccer Field. With the win the Tritons improve to 7-1-0 overall and 3-1-0 in California Collegiate Athletic Association play while the Broncos fall to 2-6-1 overall and 1-2-1 in league action.
Belak-Berger had a very eventful four minute stretch in the second half beginning at the 51:07 mark when she was assessed a yellow card on a hard tackle. Less than two minutes later, at the 53:06 mark, she was taken down inside the CPP penalty area and awarded a penalty shot which she calmly knocked into the left corner of the goal.
The celebration was short lived for Belak-Berger as she tried to slow down a Bronco penalty re-start and was carded again for her infraction, giving her two yellow cards on the night which automatically resulted in a red card and an ejection. The ejection came at the 54:45 mark and put the Tritons a man-down for the remainder of the match.
Cal Poly Pomona was only able to mount four offensive attacks that resulted in shots over the final 35 minutes, two of which were on the mouth of the goal and saved by UCSD freshman netminder Mia Shirley. Those two saves were the only ones made by Shirley on the evening.
The Triton defense did stiffen up late in the match as the Broncos earned six second half corner kicks, none of which were able to find the back of the net.
On the night, UCSD out-shot the Broncos by a 15-4 margin, but the disparity on the corner kicks was huge as Cal Poly Pomona took eight in the match compared to only one for the Tritons. 32 fouls were called on the night and five cards were assessed in a physical match on the both sides of the field.
The shutout for Shirley was her second of the season as the Tritons have now out-scored their opponents by a 31-6 margin on the season.
UCSD returns to action next week on the road, traveling to San Francisco State on Friday and San Francisco State on Sunday.
