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The Cal women’s soccer team broke two ugly streaks on Friday during their 2-0 win over Oregon. The Bears scored their first goals of the Pac-10 season, and Laura Schott got her first goal in almost a year. 

Kassie Doubrava scored Cal’s first goal of conference play in the 80th minute, then Schott scored her first goal of the season in injury time to seal the win. 

The Ducks proved a surprisingly tough opponent despite their 1-8-2 record coming into the game. Although the Bears had several good scoring chances before Doubrava’s goal and outshot Oregon 19-6, the game wasn’t decided until Schott’s goal. 

“Every Pac-10 game is tough,” Cal head coach Kevin Boyd said. “[The Ducks] don’t have the best record, but we had to battle all the way.” 

Cal (8-4-1, 1-2) was shut out in losses to UCLA and USC last weekend to open their conference schedule, and had gone 260 minutes without scoring before Doubrava gathered a long pass from Schott, beat one defender and slid the ball past Oregon goalkeeper Sarah Peters. 

But they needed just 10 minutes to score again, this time with forward Dania Cabello taking a through pass from defender Lucy Brining and slipping the ball through a defender’s legs before finding Schott open on the other side of the goalmouth. 

“Sometimes you just get in a struggle to get the ball in the net,” Boyd said of his team’s goal drought. “It becomes a burden that gets harder and harder to get rid of. But I’d say the dam broke today.” 

Schott was quick to deflect praise toward Cabello, but she couldn’t hide the grin on her face after the game. 

“Dania gave me a gift,” she said. “It wasn’t exactly a tough goal for me to score.” 

Still, it had to feel pretty good for a player who entered the season as one of the nation’s most feared scorers but has been nearly invisible thus far. Schott drew a red card in the season opener that forced her out of the next game, then sprained her knee in practice and missed the next six games.  

With the school goal-scoring record just six goals away and her final season waning quickly, Schott was understandably keen to get back on the field and was clearly unhappy when Boyd pulled her out for rests in both halves on Friday. She looked a bit hesitant at times against Oregon but nearly scored on two other occasions, including a shot that was cleared off the goal line.