Shots caromed off the crossbar, off the posts and the Cal State Fullerton goalkeeper.
The so-called "Fullerton curse" continued unabated for the Hawaii soccer team in its Big West Conference opener on Thursday night at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium, as the Rainbow Wahine dropped a 2-1 decision to the Titans.
UH (5-6, 0-1 Big West) scored first, a 12-yard shot by Kama Pascua in the 13th minute off a cross from her older sister, Krystal. But CSUF (3-7-2, 1-0), last season’s conference tournament champion — and one of four schools UH has never defeated as a Big West member — got two set-piece header goals from forward Rebecca Wilson to swing the match.
All three Wahine losses to Fullerton since joining the league in 2012 were seemingly winnable, and this one was no different.
They had shots by the younger Pascua and Storm Kenui go off the crossbar in the second half. Another golden opportunity by Pascua on a breakaway with about three minutes to go was snuffed out by keeper Jennifer Staurt, who had nine saves. Several came during a flurry of UH shots in the final desperate minutes.
"We call it the curse of Fullerton," said flabbergasted UH coach Michele Nagamine, "because I feel we’ve played pretty well the last three times we’ve played them. And it just doesn’t fall our way. It doesn’t matter if we’re there, here. It’s just one of those things. We have to address that in training. We’ll talk about the movement off the ball in transition that kind of caused the set pieces."
A theoretical home edge for UH hasn’t been apparent this season; the Wahine dropped to 2-5 on their home turf. They’ll look to get back in the Big West tournament race at 5 p.m. on Sunday against UC Riverside (5-3-3, 0-0-1), which drew 0-0 with UC Davis on Thursday.
UH, seemingly rejuvenated by a 3-1 record on a two-week road trip in September, outshot the Titans 20-10 in their return home.
"It was a lot of balls off the post. We should have followed it up and we could have made our shots count." said freshman forward Sonest Furtado. "This game is over so we need to put it behind us and focus on Sunday. Don’t let this game bother us because we need to come up big on Sunday and we need to win."
Wilson had the go-ahead score on a point-blank header, crossed in on a free kick to the right side of the 18-yard box by Brianna Chapman.
The Titans got a charge when senior captain Chelsey Patterson went out with what coach Demian Brown later called a season-ending leg injury 12 minutes into the match. Pascua’s goal followed shortly thereafter.
"She’s been so much to our program and the reality that she won’t be able to finish her senior year is a disappointing one for herself and for the program," Brown said. "A lot of credit to Hawaii, they’re a fantastic team. The sisters up front, the speed, the ideas on the attack are all tremendous. I give a lot of credit to my team for having to deal with Chelsey’s injury, battle back from a goal down and win a game in a hard place to win."
