Denise Jimenez
Cinderella’s story came to a close on Saturday for Pierce’s soccer team as they were defeated 4-3 in penalty kicks by Long Beach City College.
“It’s tough to lose when we were so close,” said coach Adolfo Perez. “We worked so hard and we were so close. We just couldn’t finish.”
It was a slow first half for the Brahmas. They seemed out of sync and they were intimidated by the dominating Vikings. Pierce was losing possession of the ball and getting beat to most of the balls.
There were also about five yellow cards given to Pierce and one red card, making them short a player. The Vikings were able to score a goal in the 36th minute of the game as Pierce let down their guard for a short second.
Perez had a serious talk with the team at half time. As soon as they stepped onto the field they looked ready to put up a fight and to play strong for the second half.
The team showed aggression throughout the period. They were controlling most of the possessions and were playing hard defense with only nine players. As the period was coming to a close Nikki Walberg scored at the 40th minute making the score 1-1.
Having to play two 15-minute halves for overtime, Pierce took the field again, down a player. The Brahmas came out with even more intensity knowing that this was going to be do or die. They finished overtime tied 1-1 and had to go to penalties.
“We wanted to take them to penalty kicks,” said Perez. “We were ready and had practiced and we did take them there.”
As the coaches huddled their players to pick the shooters, the crowd was cheering for Pierce and was trying to pump up the girls to victory.
Walberg took the field first with a look of concentration. She was the first to score for the Brahmas. Then the Vikings took the field and missed their first shot. Elia Petrosian then stepped up and was able to deliver. The next Viking stepped up and made the score 2-1. It was then Tootsa Couglin’s turn and she was able to finish. Another player for Long Beach shot and was unsuccessful as goalie Rachel Rood was able to stop the ball. Before Pierce’s next shot, the Vikings made a substitution for the goalie and then it went downhill from there for Pierce.
Krystal Bernal and Lindsey Liggera missed the game winning goals, while Long Beach was able to score the next two making them tied at 3-3. Monique Gaxiola took the final shot for Pierce and got it rejected.
Rachel Rood was going to be the hero but the ball hit her hands and then went into the goal and it was a sudden death penalty kick and Pierce lost 3-4.
Perez said the girls did a lot of good plays and many smart decisions during the game because they fought to come back and get that far although down two players. He said they played strong and were disciplined but there were too many yellow cards and most of them weren’t necessary.
“The turning point was in the penalties when they switched the goalies,” said Perez. “The girls got intimidated and lost their concentration.”
Perez is concerned for next year because he’s going to lose more than half the team as only five players will be returning. What was going through his mind was where do we go from here and what is going to happen to the Pierce team?
The players were disappointed to tears because they believed they had the game after three. Even Perez was ready to shout victory.
Perez was positive in one regard about the loss. He said, “God knows why he does things.” Pierce would have been down two of their star players at Fullerton, where they were going to play, and he said “you never know what would have happened.”
The Brahmas ended their season 23-1-2.