POCATELLO, Idaho — Senior
Emma Hasco opened the scoring with her second goal of the season in the 22nd minute and a flurry of Aggie scores in a seven-minute span in the second half opened the floodgates as the UC Davis women's soccer team closed out its trip to Idaho with a 4-0 shutout of Idaho State on Sunday afternoon.
The victory earned a split of their two-game trip to the "Gem State," as the Aggies improved to 3-3 overall on the season. The four-goal outburst was the highest for a UC Davis squad since a 4-0 win over Big West Conference rival UC Riverside in 2016.
After scoring her first of the year in the team's win over UTEP last weekend, Hasco found the back of the net for the game-winner midway through the first, converting a pass from teammate
Risa Yamada for the 1-0 lead. The assist was the first of Yamada's Division I career after she transferred from Hill College in Texas.
Then came the barrage of second-half scores as freshman
Sammie Ruelas scored twice five minutes apart in the 57th and 62nd minutes for her second and third goals of the year for a 3-0 lead. Teammate
Leslie Fregoso assisted on both, while
Nicki Rucki collected the rare goalkeeper assist on Ruelas' first goal, becoming the first UC Davis goalkeeper to record an assist since Sarah Peters against Utah Valley in 2008.
Sophomore
Molly Branigan then capped the scoring with her first goal as an Aggie in the 63rd minute — just 61 seconds, in fact, after Ruelas' second goal of the match — for the final 4-0 score.
UC Davis finished with a 26-9 advantage in shots, seven of those off the foot of Fregoso and five more each by Ruelas and
Lexi Trucco. Rucki completed her second shutout of the year, making four stops in net — three of those in the second half to preserve the clean sheet.
The Aggies return home on Sunday (Sept. 12) for a 1 p.m. kickoff against Causeway rival Sacramento State at Aggie Soccer Field.
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO System helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.
