Oct. 23, 2011

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DAVIS, Calif. -

It took two last-minute goals and ten minutes of overtime, but the No. 14 California Golden Bears handed head coach Shellie Onstead the 200th victory of her career. Senior forward Megan Shimojima scored twice, including the OT-winner.

The UC Davis Aggies scored two goals in the first half, including fining net less than two minutes before the close of the period. The Bears took control of the game in the second half, keeping the ball on the Aggies' side of the 50 for most of the period, but still trailed 2-0 heading into the final two minutes.

With just over a minute left to play, senior forward Megan Shimojima got a ball deep in the Aggie zone. She dribbled around one defender and fought off several others before willing the ball into the net with 58 seconds remaining in the game.

After the reset, Cal once again ended up with the ball deep in Davis's side of the field. Senior defender Erin Magill found the ball on the right side of the goal, passed it through traffic to sophomore forward Andrea Earle, who then smacked it in to tie the game with 30 seconds remaining.

Davis had one last chance after the reset. They got the ball deep into the Cal zone and drew a whistle with nine seconds remaining to earn a penalty corner. With double-zeros on the clock, they set up and had their chance, but Cal's defense kept them from getting off a shot.

Davis had a couple of good looks at the goal in the early minutes of the overtime, but Cal took back over and at the 80:10 minute of the game, sophomore midfielder Shannon Elmitt hit a cross to Shimojima who poked it in and gave Cal the 3-2 victory.

"I never lost hope," said Onstead. "I have a lot of confidence in our ability, but it took us really getting up against the wall, which I don't really appreciate. But all the credit for digging in and finding it. That is going to be really valuable going forward."

Cal dominated the game, statistically, putting up 20 shots to Davis' 9. The Davis keeper, Conley Craven, made nine saves in the game. Cal's senior goalkeeper Maddie Hand made four.

"Our defense kept crushing them," Onstead said. "There you have to keep telling your team to be patient. Their body language every time we missed was not good. I told them to be patient. If you keep knocking it, it is going to go. Once you get that first one, it is on!"

Earle, who took seven shots in the game, scored her conference-leading 15th goal of the season. Shimojima scored her 8th and 9th goals of the season.

"Shimo was a rock star today," Onstead said. "We were actually down two forwards in our rotation, going with four instead of the usual six, which changed things a lot. Shimo was really on target. I had just put her in the game when that opportunity presented itself. Good finish!"

The victory closes out the regular season for the Bears, giving them a 13-3 overall record an a 4-2 mark in NorPac action. The Bears will play in the NorPac Tournament Nov. 3-5 at Stanford.

The win was also a milestone in the career of head coach Shellie Onstead. It was the 200th in her career with all of those victories coming as the head coach of the Golden Bears.