After earning another conference win last Friday against East Los Angeles, PCC’s women soccer team kept the momentum going with 1-0 victory against Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) on Tuesday.
This win pushed the Lancers out of their fifth place SCC rank to a third place tie with Mt. SAC.
The first half of Tuesday’s game was slow, with both teams struggling to retain possession long enough to create opportunities to score.
“I think everyone was bit nervous at first, it was a big rival game. Everyone was trying to feel it out and then everyone calmed down, we got the win and it was fantastic. Hopefully this gives us a shot at playoffs, we’ll see,” said head coach Reggie Rivas.
In the 19th minute Yulissa Macias headed a pass from Stephanie Esparza into the net, scoring the Lancers first and only goal of the game.
“Because I was out the last few games, it felt really good to score that early on. I feel like it was like a good comeback,” said Macias in her postgame victory bliss.
For the remaining of the first half the Lancers played a strong offense and essentially forced Mt. SAC into a defensive corner. Even as the Lancers picked up the pace and managed to retain possession they still struggled to take shots on goal. They took four shots to Mt. San Antonio’s five, despite having more consistent passes.
The issue lied in communication. Forward Toni Dwyer and midfielder Thamara Peterson spent a lot of time ball watching and deferring to mark the same players without really talking to each other. This left Mt. SAC a lot of room to gain control, but not enough to score thanks to defender Alexxis Molinar’s decisive punts and goalkeeper Lily Urumieh’s consistent saves.
“I think we really need to face the ball more, play the ball and not the player,” said Mlinar.
The second half showed to be much more challenging for the Lancers. Although they mostly played offense, there were multiple close calls when Mt. SAC’s center midfielder Vanessa Plascencia got close to tying the game.
The Lancers ultimately held on and with this win improved their season record to 10-6-3 overall and 2-4-1 in conference.
The Lancers will conclude the season this Friday in a conference game against Rio Hondo.
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