Long Beach State’s Lena Silano had no doubt when she found herself in position to give the Beach a walk-off victory on Thursday night.
With time ticking down in regulation, Kaylee Ramirez delivered rainbow pass from midfield that landed right in Silano’s lap, and the junior did not miss her chance as she beat her defender and delivered a shot just past UC San Diego’s goalie outstretched arm to give LBSU a 2-1 victory to open Big West Conference play. The ball hit the net literally as the last second ticked off of the clock.
“I heard ‘5-4-3’ and I was like ‘I’m not in a rush’ and I was composed, and I shot that,” Silano said. “I was surprised it was 89:59.”
Silano’s goal delivered a thrilling victory for the Beach and helped LBSU avoid extra time and what would have been a disappointing finish to the regulation period that they controlled for most of the match.
After UC San Diego’s Caitlin McCarthy tied the game in the 86th minute, the Beach was running out of time. Looking to clear the ball and head to the extra time period, Ramirez wasn’t expecting anything when she launched the pass in Silano’s direction.
“I just wanted to make sure I got (the ball) out of my half and just get it as far up as I could for a hopeful, maybe someone will get there, and I can always count on Lena to put in the work to get something out of it and she did,” Ramirez said.
Silano scored twice to bring her total on the season to bring her total to six.
“We got to take care of our home field and get the points in the home field,” Long Beach State coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “We did that and it was a crazy finish. Hats off to UC San Diego, they fought really hard and did a great job to get back into the game and we got Lena Silano who can create some magic.”
Long Beach State will be back at George Allen Field on Sunday when they welcome Hawai’i.
