Benjamin Rizzo
An afternoon filled with total ball control and missed opportunities saw the Pierce College women’s soccer team defeat the College of the Canyons, 1-0, Oct. 16 at the Pit.The best suited fans were camped out at Pierce’s scoring half of the field, as the Brahmas dominated possession from the first kick.Scoring chances were fast, furious and frequent, with midfielder Elizabeth Salguero providing Pierce’s first three of the total 23 shots on goal in a span of 2:30. Salguero’s first opportunity came in the sixth minute of play, at the top of the penalty box, when she skillfully cradled a pass with her chest, let it fall to her foot and then launched the ball, still in midair, just over the top of the goal.This became a recurring theme of the game: crisp passing, beautiful ball-handling and missed scoring chances.”It’s frustrating when you take 23 shots and only score 1 goal,” said Adolfo Perez, head coach of the Brahmas. “We can play one game like we’re the best team in the state and the next game like we’re not very good.”Pierce finally cashed in during the 55th minute of play, when midfielder Patricia Garcia lobbed a beautiful pass behind the defense, as forward Yasmine Yahoum made a run up on the ball and fired a 20-yard boot into the top right hand corner of the net. This was Yahoum’s fourth goal of the season.”That’s usually my corner,” said Yahoum, who was motivated by an early benching in the first half. Yahoum was inserted into the game during the 13th minute, only to be benched by Perez in the 16th minute.”It was the right thing to do,” said Yahoum. “I didn’t really focus. But it gave me more motivation for the second half.”Yahoum would have had a second goal two minutes later, but it was waived off by the referee, who said Yahoum had touched the ball with her hand in the penalty area.For her effort, Yahoum was granted with an injured right hand, as her fingers were trampled by Cougars’ goalie Danielle Michel during a rough collision.”I’m gonna take my brother to class to take notes for me,” Yahoum jokingly said. She attends health and criminal justice classes in the morning.On the other half of the field, Phillip Marcellin, head coach of the visiting Cougars, was proud of his team’s effort.”Our performance these last five weeks has been heroic,” said Marcellin, whose Cougars have been dealing with injuries and eligibility issues of late. Marcellin was also thrilled with the Michel’s peformance, saying she “earned a shutout.” Michel registered nine saves in the loss.With the victory, the Brahmas move to 6-0-1 (wins-losses-ties) in the conference and 11-1-4 overall. Pierce next travels to play Los Angeles Valley College at Valley, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. The Brahmas look to avenge their 2006 defeat, as the Monarchs were the last conference team to beat Pierce in the regular season, almost one year ago today.