The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
After playing a majority of their match down one player, the Long Beach State women’s soccer team picked up a 2-1 win against New Mexico State to wrap up nonconference action on Sunday.
“We always talk about you can’t control what happens,” Long Beach State coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “Sometimes you get unexpected things against you. The only thing you control is how you respond to things and you saw the response today.”
Cherrie Cox wasted no time giving the Beach a 1-0 lead when she beat a defender and scored in the 3rd minute. However, LBSU was dealt a tough blow when Cox was given a red card 12 minutes later for an unsportsmanlike call – which meant the Beach would play the rest of the match down one player.
LBSU (3-4) kept the Aggies’ offense at bay for the next 20 minutes of the first half, but Mya Gonzales tied the game in the 32nd minute on a pass from Amaya Simoni-Walters. The Beach got a couple opportunities near the end of the half, but didn’t convert to go into the break tied.
“At halftime it was a lot about the mental shift and just letting go of whatever frustration was there from the first half,” Ingrassia said. “And then coming in fresh and learning that we could do something that has been presented to us.”
Even down one, the Beach didn’t let up and three minutes into the second half, Ameera White passed it to freshman Natelle El Mokbel and she bent a shot from outside the box and scored to the top left corner of the goal to give LBSU a 2-1 lead.
“Those type of shots. I always take them” El Mokbel said. “Because I’m left footed and I I always practice these type of shots. They’re curling in, so I knew right away when Ameera gave me the ball, I said, ‘I’m gonna put it in.’”
“Nat showed her special quality today, right?,” Ingrassia added. “And I was right behind it, so it was really special – the bend and how it hit the side net.”
LBSU continued to put pressure on the Aggies defense, and relied on their backline with Zoe Willis, Brooklyn Antonucci, Logan Nidy, Kana Uchida and Natalie Arnold to keep New Mexico State at bay. In goal, Aurora Schuck had four saves.
“I just genuinely think this team is everything,” Logan Nidy said. “I don’t know if anyone ever doubted for a second that playing a man down that we weren’t going to be able to dominate.”
While LBSU picks up the win, the red card will cause Cox to sit out of the conference opener against Hawai’i on Thursday according to NCAA rules.
“We’ll take it and it is what it is at this point,” Ingrassia said. “But we got other players that can step up and we could fight as a team.”
Source: https://www.the562.org/2025/09/14/soccer-long-beach-state-grinds-out-win-vs-new-mexico-state/
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