BURNABY, B.C. — Three second half goals erased an early deficit as Stanislaus State rallied for a great come-from-behind 3-1 win over Simon Fraser Saturday evening at Terry Fox Field.
Jade Poon scored twice — one of them a penalty kick — to help the Warriors rally as they improved to 4-0-0 this season after defeating a good SFU team. Simon Fraser (2-1-0) was picked to finish third in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in the preseason coaches poll.
Shawna McLaughlin scored the equalizer in the 59th minute, and like it has been the case several times this season, the first goal led to more offense in the second half.
"Shawna was incredible tonight. It was the most dominant performance I've seen from 6 position in a long time," said head coach
Gabriel Bolton.
Poon, who had a hat trick in Monday's win over Notre Dame de Namur, scored the go-ahead goal in the 86th minute and added another on a PK with less than two mintues left to play. Poon has now scored five goals this week to increase her career total to 32.
The Warriors dominated play in the second half, out-shooting the Clan 9-3 for the 15-10 final shot-chart count. Freshmen again contributed greatly and sparked the comeback, according to Bolton.
Autumn Halvorsen assisted on McLaughlin's goal and
JoJo Mageo helped on Poon's score.
"This freshmen class can flat out play. It doesn't matter what's going on they are able to take our play to the next level," said Bolton.
SFU took an early lead two minutes into the contest on a goal by Emma Pringle. But the Warriors limited SFU's chances the rest of the way.
Haley Crook earned four saves while SFU's goalkeeper Priya Sandhu had eight save. Stan State had 11 shots on frame out of 15 attempts.
"We simply came out too casual to open the match against an excellent opponent and we paid for that mentality," Bolton added. "What makes this team unique is not only our 'All-In' mentality but the spice we bring to the game. We actually talked about being spicy in the second half. This team needs to play free and have fun to thrive. They just needed a reminder."
The Warriors will cross back to the State side Saturday morning to prepare to take on Central Washington in Seattle on Sunday. CWU was a NCAA tornament team in 2016 and was picked to finish second in the GNAC. The match is a 2 p.m. start at Interbay Stadium near Seattle Pacific. The match was moved away from Ellensburg due to poor air quality in eastern Washington due to wild fires.
