Page One

Cal women’s soccer head coach Kevin Boyd wants his team to be the best in the country. But on Friday afternoon, they weren’t even the best in the county. 

No. 21 St. Mary’s of Moraga came into Edwards Stadium with an upset on their minds, and that’s just what they got when Gael forward Jennifer Barbera scored a goal in the first minute of sudden-death overtime to win the game, 1-0. 

“This is a huge win for us,” St. Mary’s head coach Paul Ratcliffe said. “We’re so close, we have a natural rivalry, and we’re just trying to catch up with them and stay close.” 

The game’s only goal came when St. Mary’s forward Lucianna Crenshaw slid the ball across to Barbera at the top of the box. Barbera lofted her shot over Cal goalkeeper Mallory Moser and off of the inside of the left post. 

The sixth-ranked Bears (8-2) lost despite a scintillating second-half stretch of play during which they had a penalty shot and three breakaways. Cal striker Laura Schott kicked off the run with a beautiful through ball for midfielder Kim Yokers, but St. Mary’s goalkeeper Ruth Montgomery came off of her line and blocked Yokers’ shot with her trailing leg.  

After two nice counter-attacks by the Gaels (9-0-1), Yokers returned the favor, putting Schott through one-on-one with Montgomery. Schott pushed the ball past the sliding keeper at the top of the box, and Montgomery took the All-America junior down for a penalty kick. But Schott, who scored on a PK a week ago against Fresno State, only put the ball two yards to Montgomery’s left, and the keeper deflected the ball outside the post. 

Minutes later, freshman sensation Kacy Hornor slid the ball across the box for midfielder Brittany Kirk, but Kirk put her one-time shot wide of the goal. Kirk then put Hornor through right down the middle, but Montgomery again came up huge, coming off her line hard and blocking Hornor’s shot. 

“We should’ve put the game away right there in the second half,” Cal head coach Kevin Boyd said. “The keeper made some good saves, but when you’ve got a one-on-one you have to put it away.” 

The Bears were never able to get into their usual style of possessing the ball in back and building an attack, instead resorting to hitting ball after ball up long up the middle. St. Mary’s midfielder Katie Sticinski dominated the middle, distributing the ball and bottling up Cal’s Brittany Kirk, one of the key play-makers for the Bears. Up front, freshman Katie Frattone and sophomore Lucianne Crenshaw made things hard on the Cal defenders, refusing to back off and let the Bears play the ball to each other with ease. 

“(St. Mary’s) played very hard today, maybe harder than us,” Boyd said. “This was certainly a chance for them to prove they should be getting recognition.”