It’s Just Like Old Times for Matadors, 1-0

First, top recruit Nicole Farenbaugh was lost for the season because of a leg injury and last season’s top offensive threat Gentry Green was deemed ineligible.

Then there was a 496-minute span when no goals were scored and three consecutive losses.

Things were not looking good for the Cal State Northridge women’s soccer team, but the Matadors have turned things around.

Erin Broadwell scored in overtime and Northridge beat Cal State Fullerton, 1-0, in a nonconference game Wednesday night at North Campus Stadium.

Northridge (4-4-3), winless in its first six games, has won three in a row.

“We finally scored in overtime. We haven’t done that all season,” said Broadwell, who scored her first goal of the season after leading the Matadors with eight last year. “Lately I haven’t been scoring and I finally did. This is just the beginning. I finally gained my confidence back.”

With Broadwell struggling, Melissa Cleal and Kris Von Krog provided the sparks in the Matadors’ two previous victories.

But Broadwell snapped out of it against Fullerton (5-6).

i Broadwell’s goal came in the 94th minute. She one-touched a cross from Kerrie Clavadetscher past Laura Janke, former Simi Valley goalkeeper.

“I knew I had to be the first to the ball,” Broadwell said. “I had to beat my defender there. My best shot was placing it instead of trying to hit it hard, and that’s what I did.”

Without goalkeeper Jenny Willemse’s outstanding play, Broadwell’s heroics would have never happened. Willemse stopped 10 shots and kept the Matadors alive when missed opportunities nearly proved costly.

“I thought it was going to be 0-0,” Coach Allison Lee of Northridge said. “We had missed a lot of opportunities earlier in the game and I didn’t know if this game was going to go our way. We had a lot of great opportunities, but no composure in front of the goal. That was a big goal for us, definitely the biggest of [Broadwell’s] career. Erin came up big for us.”

Forward Michelle French had the best opportunity to put Northridge on the scoreboard in regulation. French had a one-on-one with Janke, but her shot missed just to the left.

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* Pepperdine soccer team one win shy of school record for consecutive victories. D16