Photo credit: LBSU Athletics/Diego Devia
The562’s coverage of the 2022-23 season of Long Beach State Athletics, marilyn ball.
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Lena Cyrano is different in one word.
On Sunday night, the senior strikers will face Long Beach State (1-2-2) against San Diego (1-3-1). That ended Beaches in a 2-2 draw for him, but it’s Cyrano’s glorious moments that will be remembered long after his 2022 season is over.
“This is the greatest goal in the history of the field,” said Long Beach State head coach Mauricio Ingracia.
“It’s like a dream,” said Sirano in disbelief. “It’s a footballer’s dream. It was amazing.”
Tie 2-1 with less than three minutes remaining, junior Elysia Laramie showed great skill and strength on the right flank to beat the defenders. She was able to nutmeg a defender before throwing it to the turf and sent a perfect cross towards Cyrano in the penalty area. Here instinct reigns and the veteran forward her daring Bicycle perfected her kick to push the equalizer just under the crossbar.
“I believed Elisha would do her thing. She absolutely did her thing,” Cyrano said. “She handed it to me and I looked at it and thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to send this perfectly right now.’ Trust me, it came in. I was like, “Oh my god.”
It was perfect timing, and the disbelief on her face told the story. Cyrano said this was the first bike kick she ever got and she “really doesn’t do well.”
The goal was actually Cyrano’s second of the night after giving Long Beach State the lead in the 25th minute. After a give-and-go with her teammate Sherry Cox, she was able to beat the USD keeper from a tight angle, giving Beach the advantage after a physical start to the match.
The score remained 1-0 going into halftime, with Cyrano scoring all three shots for LBSU in the first 45 minutes. With these two goals, Cyrano has scored five goals this season and cemented his position as the leader of his team.
While Beach was in control of the match at the start and end, San Diego pulled off a blistering 20-minute stretch early in the second half that produced both Torero’s goals. The tie came with an impressive individual effort from Eden Quiros. Eden Quiros gathered the deflection and quietly raised the strike past LBSU goalkeeper Morgan Houston Shepherd to the other side of the goal. That equalized in the 54th minute and LBSU caught up again.
“I felt like I was a bit of a step back for too long,” Ingracia said. “Then they scored the second but we never gave up. We also missed the sitter within six yards. It tends to flow in. That’s the law of football gods.”
USD’s opening goal came through Josephine Schlichting in the 68th minute. Had it not been for the heroic intervention of Mady Perez, Torreros would have scored his third goal.
After the beach calmed down, they produced quality looks in the final 20 minutes. Even after Cyrano’s equalizer, LBSU kept their lead at full speed for his final two minutes.
When the dust settled, LBSU outscored the visitors 17-13, led by seven attempts from Cyrano. While Laramie, Julia Moore and Summer Lasky each had a pair, Cox added three shots for Beach after halftime as the team made his 23 combined goal attempts. After time he had 14 shots.
“We create a lot of opportunities,” Ingracia said. “It’s a real shame we didn’t win this. But I feel like it could have gone either way… I’m proud of Lena Cyrano’s brilliant goal and the team that fought back the way they did.”
Unfortunately, Beach suffered several key injuries that affected him during the match. has made some modifications to the back.
There seems to be more concern about freshman forward Felicia Yastre Hogberg, who was rescued from the field in the 18th minute after a hard challenge. I was on crutches.
After opening the season with six straight games at George Allen Field, Beach finally gets its first road test at Harvard next Thursday. It will be the only road game of the non-conference season for Beaches, who will play just one more.
Cyrano agreed that Beach could have found a way to win on Sunday, but was pleased with the team’s ability to fight back late.
“We definitely could have had a different outcome. We’re just responding,” she said. It was definitely heartbreaking but you know we just responded and I’m glad we got the points and all we can do is grow from here and go to Harvard next week You get privileges.”
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