Box Score
SAN MARCOS, Calif. – No. 11 Cal State San Marcos scored twice in the first 11 minutes in a 3-0 shutout of Ashford (Iowa) in Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) women's soccer action Friday afternoon at Mangrum Field.

Kaleigh Dodson logged two assists and Amanda Sears made a career-high eight saves as the Cougars ran their unbeaten streak to six games. In addition, CSUSM's shutout streak stands at four.

CSUSM (8-2-2, 1-0) is doing all this with a plague of injuries eating at the squad. Five starters from CSUSM's opening-day roster are out with season-ending injuries; 19 total players graced the pitch on Friday for CSUSM, including Kaylea Bradley and Alexa Watkins, who saw their first action of the year.

“We have a lot of girls on the team and there's a lot of them stepping up and providing useful minutes. We're going to continue to rely on those girls who don't usually get tons of minutes to step in and provide for us. Tonight they did a really good job of that,” said CSUSM head coach Ron Pulvers.

The CSUSM new-look front line didn't take long to get going against Ashford (9-4, 0-1).

The Saints mishandled a clearance that landed on the foot of Natalya Erbel at the top of the box. Erbel took a shot which appeared as if it would be dealt with by Jerika Castillo, but the Saints' keeper let the ball slip through her hands to put CSUSM up 1-0 eight minutes in.

Three minutes later, Erin Mulrooney played long to Shelby Bush along the left side to put the forward inside the box. Bush battled for a corner kick along the end line, but a Saints defender put it out for a throw. Dodson's long throw-in went over the first defender, bounced inside the six, and was volleyed home one-time by Sarah Hopper.

Up by two goals, the Cougars looked to add another before the half. Dodson's left-footed right-to-left knuckler was saved at the last second by Castillo and Dani Porter nearly poked in a hard cross from Jacqueline Lara.

“Today the focus was to set the pace. We got two early goals and just stayed on them,” said Dodson.

The Saints didn't back down right away, however, as Sears was called into action late in the first half. She intelligently stayed on her line as a long ball was played into the box, pushing Alicia Tambrro's header to the crossbar up and out of danger.

Sears dove low and to her left to stonewall Chelsea Fisher's shot from 25 before lunging to her right to save Jordan Pisesky's crack to the front post on the next possession.

“Today we talked to them about two things. We wanted them to be one hundred percent focused, and come out and set the tone. We did a good enough job to get an early goal and the girls' belief fed off that. We got the second one, and then it made the game a little bit easier for us,” said Pulvers.

CSUSM was put in cruise control seven minutes into the second half. Dodson found Bush on an in-swinging corner kick from the left side and Bush headed it down to make it 3-0.

Sears was called upon twice in the waning moments to keep the clean sheet, blocking both breakaway attempts by Hollie Babut, the nation's seventh-leading scorer.

Sears, a freshman, has started every game this year and has a goals-against average of .80.

“I thought we did a reasonably good job of denying them,” said Pulvers. “I think we're clearly the best team in our conference. But any given day those teams can beat you if you're not at your best. Our challenge now is to take that next step, try and get to that next level, no matter who's on the field, [and] to come with the right approach to every game.”

The Cougars host NCAA Division II's Point Loma Nazarene at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 17. On Friday, CSUSM plays UC Santa Cruz at 4:00 p.m. on Cal State San Marcos Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day.