Daniel Cromar
Sophomore Day. It’s that day when sports teams say thanks for all the hard work and contributions they’ve gotten from their sophomores.
For the women’s soccer team Friday, the sophomores said “You’re welcome” in a big way.
Sophomores Yasmine Yahoum and Dilhani Perera scored the only two goals in the Brahmas’ 2-0 victory against College of the Canyons to give Pierce its fourth consecutive Western State Southern Conference championship, and also its sixteenth shutout of the year.
“It’s a great thing,” Perera said about scoring on Sophomore Day. “It’s emotional, because we’ve been together for two years now. It feels good.”
At the end of the first half, with the score tied 0-0, it looked like Friday’s game would be a repeat of the recent scoreless tie against Mission College. The Brahmas were maintaining control and getting many scoring opportunities but could not manage to score.
“They put their two best players in the back so we don’t score,” said head coach Adolfo Perez at halftime. “They don’t care about winning. They just want to stop Pierce from winning.”
It looked like the Cougars were going to do just that, until Yasmine Yahoum put a cross from Rachel Kove into the back of the net almost halfway into the second half.
“We were shaky, we were just nervous, and after that first goal everything got under control,” Yahoum said.
The Brahmas were definitely in control for the rest of the half as they continued to put pressure on the Cougars, until finally, late in the half, Dilhani Perera broke through with Pierce’s second goal.
“Hard work paid off,” Perera said. “We needed that goal.”
The game ended almost 10 minutes later, and about another 20 minutes after that, the Brahmas erupted into celebration. They received word Bakersfield also won its game 2-0, which was not enough for them to overtake Pierce in goals scored, officially giving Pierce the conference championship.
The Brahmas have plenty of work still ahead of them. Their first playoff game will be Saturday. The time and location of the game has not yet been announced.
The only thing certain is that the Brahmas will face a much higher caliber of competition than they have been facing lately, and if they hope to win, they need to play at that level.
“We’ve gotta score,” Perez said.
That has been the Brahmas’ problem as of late. They are able to maintain control of the ball with their dominant offense, but have trouble taking advantage of their scoring opportunities. That may work against teams like Canyon, but it probably won’t work against playoff-caliber teams.
“There are 50 programs (in the region) and only 16 make it, so mathematically everyone’s going to be good,” Perez said.
The Brahmas will spend this week preparing for the long road ahead of them, but for now, they have a chance to relish their victory and to enjoy the journey they’ve taken. That’s the point of Sophomore Day, and that wasn’t lost on the Brahmas – and certainly not on the sophomores.
“It feels so good,” Yahoum said. “It means a lot. More than anything, more than any game I’ve scored in.”