Cal Poly senior forward Jessie Halladay celebrates a defensive clear with her teammate during a 1-0 victory against LBSU at George Allen Field on Thursday, Oct. 16. Halladay had an assist to midfielder Madelyn Dougherty for the lone goal of the game. Eddy Cermeno | Long Beach Current

Long Beach State (5-6-3) was held silent in a 1-0 defeat against Big West rival Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (6-2-8) on Thursday, Oct. 16, at George Allen Field.

19 minutes of a trapped Mustang offense was released free after a soaring pass fell onto the foot of Cal Poly graduate midfielder and Big West assist leader Madelyn Dougherty for a volleyed goal just above the reaching fingertips of LBSU junior goalkeeper Aurora Schuck, hitting off the crossbar and landing straight down past the goal line for a Cal Poly 1-0 lead.

“Disappointing goal that we gave up because we had players around there, and obviously the girl made a good play, but it seemed like it was a 1-in-100 [play],” LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said.

Long Beach State sophomore forward Kailey Supa attempts to cross the ball as Cal Poly Mustang Brennan Cole defends her during the game at George Allen Field on Thursday, Oct. 16. LBSU lost the game against the Mustangs 0-1. Eddy Cermeno | Long Beach Current

The top two teams leading the Big West in shots and shots on goal per game combined for a total of seven shots to end the first half. LBSU led with four, with just one on goal, while Cal Poly hit the mark on all three of their first-half shots.

LBSU’s offense came out of the break hunting for opportunities to equalize the game as junior forward Radisson Banks shot the first of her game-leading three shots, from just outside the box, as it grazed over the crossbar in the 58th minute. 

“Soccer is a sport that, like my coach says, ‘it’s unforgiving.’ You don’t handle your chances, it’s gonna come back to bite you,” Banks said. “Respectfully, I don’t think that it was Poly’s defense that stopped us; I think that it was ourselves. I think that we are better than this.”

Just two minutes later, LBSU junior forward Cherrie Cox was found inside the box for a diving header attempt that was caught by the clean-sheeted Mustang redshirt freshman goalkeeper Shannon Porubski.

Redshirt freshman Cal Poly goalkeeper Shannon Porubski grabs the ball in the air as Long Beach State junior forward Cherrie Cox tries to head it during the game at George Allen Field on Thursday, Oct. 16. Porubski ended the game with four saves in the Mustangs’ 1-0 victory against LBSU. Eddy Cermeno | Long Beach State

Missed opportunities was the key factor in The Beach’s loss, as they outshot the Mustangs 12-5 with just four shots on goal.

From the 71st to the 77th minute, LBSU were awarded three corners and just one ended with a shot on target, coming from Banks but saved by Porubski.

The Beach offense was given their eighth corner of the night in the 87th minute, as the ball found its way outside the box to sophomore defender Brooklyn Antonucci where she fired a shot above the crossbar as LBSU could not add a ninth draw onto Cal Poly’s single-season program record of eight draws this season. 

With four games left in the season, The Beach fell from sixth to eighth in the Big West standings, needing to climb their way back up to sixth to qualify for the conference championship tournament.

“Tomorrow we start from zero, we recover tonight…and just gotta turn the page,” Ingrassia said. 

LBSU takes on UC Santa Barbara next, who sit in fourth place in the Big West standings, on Sunday, Oct. 19.