It was a windy Thursday night at La Playa Stadium, but that didn’t stop the City College women’s soccer team from pulling through with a 2-0 conference win against LA Pierce College.
The team dominated the majority of the first half, outshooting LA Pierce 14 to 2, but they were not able to find the back of the net until the second half.
“As a team, we had more possession, we didn’t force anything and had everybody behind the ball,” said midfielder Lourdes Marin-Rodriguez. “We dominated the first half we just couldn’t get it in the goal.”
The Vaqueros finally broke through and managed to get a goal early in the second half. It came off a free-kick that was awarded when a City College player was fouled.
Midfielder Molly Branigan passed across the field as defender Jessica Salas was there to header it in for her first goal of the season, making it 1-0 at the 51-minute mark. There was some confusion at first when the linesman had marked an offside position, but after deliberating with the center referee, the goal was allowed.
“They committed a foul close to the 18-yard box,” Salas said. “I just thought of it as a corner, and when I looked up and saw the ball I just headered it in.”
The team did not let their foot off the gas and they were rewarded for their efforts 65 minutes into the game when Marin-Rodriguez blasted a shot from 35 yards out up and over the Pierce College goalie making it 2-0 in favor of the Vaqueros.
“Our main goal was to shoot, coach told us at halftime to keep shooting,” said Rodriguez. “The goalie was backtracking so I just shot the ball with the help of the wind it just went over her and I just knew it was in.”
City College continued their dominating performance and held their defensive shape for the remainder of the game. They only allowed two shots from LA Pierce in the second half, making it their second straight shutout.
“We’re starting to move in the right direction, we’ve sort of found our identity now we move on and hopefully pick up a win tomorrow,” said Head Coach John Sisterson. “It’s a quick turnaround but the goal this week was to get three wins and we’re two-thirds of the way there.”
After the win, the City College women’s soccer team improved to 6-6-1 overall and 3-1 in conference play. The team will look to make it three straight conference wins when they travel to Oxnard on Friday afternoon.
