Two late game heroic set pieces by sophomore midfielder Jessica Brooksby boosted the Aggies to their fourth straight win.
Down by a goal in the 85th minute to Fresno State Brooksby set up for a free kick 18 yards outside of the box.
“[Lauren] Roundy came up to me and she was like ‘you got it,’ and I knew I could do it,” Brooksby said. “I knew I could put it in. Our team earned the win.”
Brooksby buried the shot and sent the game in to overtime.
“That was a fantastic free kick,” said head coach Heather Cairns. “Her and Ambryn [McCalson] work on that every week at practice, so I’m really happy that paid off.”
Brooksby then took a corner kick in the eighth minute of overtime which found it’s way in to the back of the net off of a Bulldog defender’s head.
Fresno State’s goal in the 65th minute ended the three game shutout shutout streak that the Aggeis were riding. It was also the first time this season that USU won after trailing.
“It was a little bit of a heart breaker, we’ve been so strong defensively and marking on our set pieces like that,” said senior defender Taryn Rose. “You can’t let something small like that get us down and hinder the rest of the game, we had lots of time to get back in it. I think it shows how strong we are mentally to come back the way we did and stay in the game.”
Last season USU lost on the road to Fresno State in overtime.
“It was a sweet victory, we have had a back and forth rivalry with these guys, we’ve played them for every year in my five years here,” Rose said. “They kind of robbed us last year the same way that we robbed them this year. So it’s a great rivalry and it’s always fun to play them.”
With the win USU goes to 4-1-1 in conference play. They also went 4-0 in the home stand. However they go on the road this weekend to take on league leaders San Diego State and New Mexico.
“Tomorrow it’s getting back to work, we’ve got league leaders at their home,” Cairns said. “So we’re really going to focus on San Diego State and taking the show on the road, cleaning some things up but using the confidence that we gained from this home stretch.”
