It wasn't pretty, but Cougar women's soccer pulled out a 2-1 victory over #25 Madonna University on Thursday night in front of a packed house at Mangrum Field.  Playing in her first game as a Cougar, freshman Kristin Poggioli knocked in the game winner with 5 minutes left on the block.

The win improves the #10-ranked Cougars to 1-0 on the season, and drops Madonna to 0-2.

Playing in toasty conditions, neither team looked especially sharp on Thursday.  Madonna struck first, with Jaclyn Ventimiglia tapping in a loose ball in front of the net to give her team a 1-0 lead headed into the half.

Much of the second half would play out like the first, with CSUSM controlling possession but not generating a huge amount of legitimate scoring chances. 

Fittingly, then, the Cougars' first goal would come on what did not appear to be a legitimate scoring chance.  Taylor Ziencina lobbed a seemingly-harmless ball in from about 30 yards out, but it short-hopped and handcuffed the keeper, bouncing off her and finding the corner of the net.

That came in the 79th minute, and in the 85th, Poggioli would score the game winner on a long ball that was hit into a huge mass of players, and appeared to bounce off her hip and past the keeper.  CSUSM would salt away the game's final five minutes to secure the tough win.

The Cougars will be back in action on Tuesday at CSU Dominguez-Hills.  The team's next home game is September 9th vs. Vanguard.