No. 25 Cal routs struggling CU Buffs women’s soccer

PUBLISHED: October 27, 2022 at 4:19 p.m. | UPDATED: October 27, 2022 at 7:15 p.m.

BERKELEY, Calif. — A season that began full of excitement and intrigue hit a new low on Thursday for the Colorado women’s soccer team.

Needing a road win to keep their fleeting NCAA Tournament hopes alive, the Buffaloes instead were blasted 4-0 at No. 25 California in an afternoon matchup . CU entered the game at No. 54 in the RPI and likely needing road wins this weekend against the Golden Bears and No. 7 Stanford to keep postseason hopes alive.

After falling flat at Cal, that postseason picture is on life support going into Sunday’s date at Stanford, where CU is 0-7 all-time.

It was CU’s third shutout loss in the past four games. After spending the first month of the season among the top scoring teams in the nation, the Buffs have just one goal during the run of play in the past five games, going back to an Oct. 9 date against Oregon that CU won 1-0 on a penalty kick.

“When we won the ball we were just giving it away too easy,” CU head coach Danny Sanchez said. “We didn’t have enough movement off the ball and sometimes when you need to defend for long stretches you fall into bad habits. I thought in the second half we moved the ball better and created a couple of half chances. It was going to be tough to get back in the game but we wanted to build some momentum for the weekend. I thought there were some good performances in the second half and we have to take those positives and get ready for Stanford.”

Sanchez gave sophomore Bella Grust her second consecutive start at goalkeeper, but she and the Buffs’ back line were unable to contain the Bears’ constant pressure. Cal finished with 11 shots on goal against just one for CU.

Cal (10-4-4, 5-3-1 Pac-12) opened the scoring in the 25th minute on a goal by Noelle Bond-Flasza. Grust actually stopped a penalty kick a few minutes later, but after she couldn’t secure the save, Cal’s Ayo Oke outhustled the Buffs to the loose ball and fed Keely Roy to give the Bears a 2-0 lead.

Another Oke-to-Roy goal late in the first half gave Cal a 3-0 lead at the break, and Mia Fontana capped the scoring for the hosts in the 64th minute. Oke finished with three assists.

CU fell to 8-6-4 and 2-5-2 in the Pac-12.

“Credit to Cal,” Sanchez said. “We knew the importance of this match and maybe we were just a little too tight at the beginning of the game. We dug ourselves a hole that was difficult to come out of on the road. Having said that, the game was 1-0 and we gave up a penalty that Bella makes a great save on and we don’t track in [the rebound]. Instead of it maybe being 1-0 at halftime it just balloons from there.”