Two exquisite goals by Brahma midfielder Jessica Gonzalez just weren’t enough to beat College of the Canyons on Tuesday with conference first place at stake.
Although Pierce College showed great character in coming back from two goals down, early mistakes proved to be too much to overcome in a sloppy game that ended in a 2-2 tie.
Score which practically gives College of the Canyons this year’s conference championship with one game left in the regular season.
“I don’t know why [we started so slow], it happened against Santa Monica, it keeps happening,” said Brahmas’ head coach Adolfo Perez. “I’m trying to focus more on the positive because to come here, to be losing 2-0, to be giving them the championship, and then for them to come back is unbelievable.”
The first minutes of the game showed a Cougars’ team decided to beat Pierce to claim conference championship.
They were in attacking mode since the start of the match and forced the Brahmas’ defense to commit two gross mistakes which led COC’s Sydney Tobin to score twice and give a 2-0 lead for the Cougars before reaching 20 minutes in the game clock.
“We didn’t pressure enough, we didn’t really think of it as going out there with it all and we had to,” said forward Arely Blanco. “We made a couple of mistakes but we came out with everything and pressured hard [in the second half], because we knew they were going to come out hard and we had to want it.”
Pierce woke up after the Cougars second goal and started to pressure their midfielders, the prize came when Jessica Gonzalez scored from a mid field shot that bounced over the COC goalie’s head to cut the distance.
“The momentum definitely shifted once we gave up the goal, just a keeper mistake and it happens, once they got that goal it kind of gave them a little more fight than they have had the first 20 minutes,” said Cougars’ head coach Justin Lundin. “They all of a sudden found themselves back in the game and it became really interesting from that point forward.”
From that point on, Pierce had more ball possession and took control of the final part of the first half searching for that equalizer.
The beginning of the second half looked like the last part of the first, with Pierce going forward in search for the tie.
Even though the Brahmas were down at the half, coach Perez’s speech during halftime got them back in it.
“I said that we need to stick to our game plan, that we’re better soccer players than they are and that we’re not going to win just because we’re better soccer players,” said Perez. “We did that [in the second half], we put the ball on the ground and we started to play better.”
They got it before the 15 minute mark when Jessica Gonzalez scored a world-class goal kicking it in midair not letting the ball drop to beat COC’s goalie and tie it up at two goals.
The game turned into a back and forth battle for the time remaining with College of the Canyons a little closer at the end.
The 2-2 tie leaves the Brahmas in a difficult position where to win conference championship they would have to beat Citrus at home in the last regular game of the season and expect the Cougars to lose at home against Santa Monica.
Both games will be on Friday, Nov. 11 at 3 p.m.
http://info.piercecollege.edu/departments/athletics/wnsoccer.html
