Women’s soccer back to their offensive dominance

Tuesday’s game redeemed the Lancer’s attack with a 1-1 draw against Long Beach Community College.

Coming into the game, the Lancers had lost three in a row, being shutout in each loss.

From the sound of the whistle, the Lancers went with an offensive 4-3-3, giving LBCC no time to take a breather. For most part of first half, the Lancers held possession and passed the ball with composure.

“Our touch has been a little off lately, so we really focused on our touches – trapping the ball, passing the ball, being a little crisper and cleaner,” said head coach Reggie Rivas.

However, the Vikings opened up the scoresheet from their only corner kick of the first half in the 25th minute.

Instead of crossing the ball, Sophia Barragan opted for a pass, finding defender Aubree Furman free to finesse her shot high towards the top post in for a goal.

The Lancers responded back with their own corner kick goal in the 29th minute.

Emily Matthiesen swung her cross towards second post allowing Alexxis Molinar to get free from her defender, sending a lobbed header over the LBCC goalkeeper. The keeper went from hero to villain as she smacked the ball forward, for Yulissa Macias to easily tap-in the loose ball.

“Honestly, I wish we had more shots. We touched more, but whenever it was a goal kick or a throw-in they had more possession and were first to the ball, mostly,” said Macias. “I feel like we did better second half, but we still need to be more aggressive.”

LBCC challenged the Lancers in the second half, but failed to put their chances away.

In the 54th minute, goalkeeper Lilly Urumieh’s outstanding one-on-one save from a LBCC breakaway play kept the Lancers alive. Urumieh, tallied 6 saves from 7 shots on target.

PCC top goalscorer Chloe Twitchell almost put the game to bed from a counter attack in the 67th minute. Twitchell got in behind the LBCC center-backs by a Macias through ball, but her shot went straight to the keeper’s hands.

In the last minutes, the game of “last goal wins” raised tensions on both sides of the aisle. However, both sides failed to pull ahead, and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

“I think we’re starting to be a little more aggressive and get a little more into [the game]. We’re finally starting to build up and I think the team is starting to really want it,” said Thamara Peterson. “A tie is better than a loss, and that’s giving some hope, so hopefully the girls will take it seriously and want to move forward from it.”

The Lancers visit Compton College (2-11) on Friday, October 20th, at 4:00 p.m.