BERKELEY – Though the No. 19/18 California women’s soccer team was not the
first ranked opposition of the year for unranked Long Beach State, the
Golden Bears proved too much for the 49ers to handle. Sunday morning saw
Cal handout a lesson in the power of the Pac-10 with a 6-0 win over Long
Beach State at Edwards Stadium. Senior forward Alex Morgan led the Bears
(4-0-2) with two goals, her eighth and ninth of the season, to victory
over Long Beach State (4-3-1).

“I think our intensity was very, very good from the start of the game to
the end,” Cal head coach Neil McGuire said. “No matter who was on the
field, we played within our system. By doing that, we earned the shutout.
The amount of goals scored is exciting for the players.”

The Bears rained six goals and 19 shots over the Beach to take the
nonconference victory, which was the third consecutive time the Bears
scored more than four or more goals. Cal got goals from four different
players – Morgan, freshman forward Rachel Mercik, sophomore defender
Rachel Clark and freshman forward Mekenna DeBack – as well as a LBSU own
goal.

The 49ers are now 2-2 against ranked opposition, losing to then-No. 14 BYU
on Aug. 20. The Beach earned a pair of 2-1 victories over then-No. 21
Washington State and then-No. 16 Virginia Tech on Aug. 27 and Aug. 29,
respectively.

“We expected a battle,” McGuire said of the 49ers. “There’s no question
that they’re a talented team and that they are well coached. We just had
to try and take advantage of any opportunities that came to us and we were
fortunate to do that.”

For the first two goals of the game – Morgan and Mercik teamed up for two
scores in the span of roughly eight minutes. At 16:15, Morgan crossed it
into Mercik, who then one touched it into the back left corner.

Mercik returned the favor to Morgan at in the 23rd minute. Sophomore
midfielder Betsy Hassett took it down field, passed to Mercik. Mercik
passed the ball into Morgan, who then shot it into the back left half of
the net.

Shawna Gordon of Long Beach State had a golden opportunity with a shot on
an empty goal after Kruger came out to stop an attack from the near side.
Gordon shot it and missed right by less than foot, even more narrowly
missing the post.

Cal took a 2-0 lead into the halftime break, outshooting the Beach, 9-4,
at the conclusion of the first 45.

Thirty-one seconds into the second half, the Bears upped their lead to
3-0. Sophomore forward/midfielder Lauren Battung passed to Morgan, who
dribbled around the defender and shot the ball into the right corner.

Long Beach State did nothing to help its own cause in the 48th minute, but
rather increased Cal’s lead to four. Senior Megan Jesolva took a corner
kick, crossed it perfected into the middle. The ball hit off of several
Bears and 49ers but LBSU’s Lindsay Bullock knocked it past her own
teammate, goalkeeper Emily Kingsborough, for an own goal.

After the fourth goal of the game, the Bear offense was silent for
approximately 32 minutes, when freshman midfielder Kaitlyn Fitzpatrick
earned a corner kick. Freshman forward Kate Bennett took it, crossing it
in to left side of the box, where Rachel Clark was poised. Clark headed it
in the left side of the goal for her first score of the season.

To close the game, Fitzpatrick assisted with 4:56 minutes remaining on the
clock, crossing it into DeBack. DeBack, who played 23 minutes, shot it to
the right side for her second goal of her Cal career.

Overall, Morgan paced the Bears with four shots. Keepers Emily Kruger and
Lauren Hein split time between the posts with Kruger making one stop and
Hein grabbing two in the shutout.

Next weekend, Cal hosts two more games. Though San Francisco played two
games at Edwards Stadium last weekend, the Dons return to Berkeley to take
on the Bears for the first time this season. Cal hosts USF on Friday,
Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. and closes the weekend against Pacific on Sunday, Sept.
19 at 1 p.m., as well. Former Golden Bear and All-Pac-10 player Maite
Zabala is an assistant coach for San Francisco. The Bears own the series
record with the Dons at 10-3-2 and won the last meeting, 4-0, in 2006. The
Bears have won the three most recent meetings with the Tigers to improve
Cal's all-time record with UOP to 5-1-0.