The Pierce College Women’s soccer team played frustrated in a 1-0 loss at Valley College Friday.
The Brahmas came out of the gates shooting, with two shots on goal in the first two minutes of the first half.
Most of the first half was played in the midfield as Valley kept the Brahmas from getting into the offensive zone.
As a result, Pierce took many desperate shots that sailed over the net.
“We had a hard time penetrating in their zone. We got desparate and started shooting,” said Head Coach Adolfo Perez.
Poirsha Woolfork came very close to breaking the scoring drought with a shot that hit the cross bar at 22:36 in the first half.
Two minutes later, Woolfork came close again with a shoot that went past the goalkeeper but was deflected away by a Valley defender at 28:30 in the first half.
Valley tried to respond with a quick shot on goal that was saved by goalkeeper Rachael Vreeland at 43:30 in the first half.
Woolfork came back quickly with one last shot on goal right before the half, and the two teams went into the half scoreless.
The Brahamas came out of the running with two scoring chances in the second minute, but no shots on the goal.
Elia Petrosian shot on goal at 6:06 in the second half.
The game started to get physical in the second half when the Brahmas’ defensive back Kimber Odorn received a yellow card in the ninth minute, for bumping one of Valley’s attackers.
The ball stayed in the middle of the field for the next 10 minutes as both defenses tightened up.
Petrosian was fouled by Valley’s No. 12 in the 20th minute and got a yellow card for the foul. Petrosian also received a yellow card for her comments to the referee shortly after the play.
The game started to open up after that as the Brahmas started relying on long kicks and low percentage outside shots, but Valley’s defense limited the amount of touches for Woolfork in the second half.
Petrosian did her best to get the Brahmas on the board in the late minutes in the game with a couple of scoring chances that ended up in collisions.
She collided with Valley’s goalkeeper at 35:37 in the second half.
She was also tackled by two defenders in the 40th minute, and no foul was called by the referees.
She got up, took control of the ball and kicked a hard shot that was saved by Valley’s goalkeeper.
Three minutes later Valley20 scored the game winning goal at 43:15 in the second half.
“We took them too lightly. We thought we just had to show up. Sports isn’t like that, you have to play the game,” said Coach Perez.
The Brahmas now have a record of 12-4-3 and still have a chance to win their second straight Southern division title, with two games remaining in the season.
They play at Pierce Friday at 3 p.m. against Santa Monica College and Tuesday against College of the Canyons.
