Pirates blank Gauchos, 2-0

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College women's soccer team kept its spot alone in second place in the Orange Empire Conference thanks to a 2-0 win over visiting Saddleback College on Friday inside LeBard Stadium.

The Pirates (10-3-3, 8-3-2 in OEC) picked up an early goal in both halves and managed to keep one of the state's top scorers, Danyelle Allen (23 goals) off of the scoreboard the entire afternoon.

"Both teams play the same style so for us, it was a matter of applying pressure inside their zone to minimize her chances up front," OCC head coach Kevin Smith said. "By pressuring their defenders and our midfielders doing a great job, their girl (Allen) wasn't able to get the chances she normally gets."

Karly Freeman sparked OCC's first goal when she sent a nice kick into open space, where Shelle Zito outran Saddleback goalkeeper Alexandria Scott (nine saves) for the loose ball. Zito flicked the ball past Scott and into the next in the game's fifth minute, putting the Pirates up 1-0.

Scott helped keep her Gauchos (10-3-5, 6-2-4) in the match early on with a couple of outstanding saves, including a diving stop from a Freeman shot in the second minute of play.

OCC's netminder, Emily Harrier (five saves) came up big in the eighth minute when she stopped a free kick by Allen from finding the upper-left corner with a nice save of her own.

Coast missed a penalty kick opportunity in the 13th minute, but still managed to carry a 1-0 lead into halftime.

Just six minutes into the second half, a throw-in by Anmarie Moreno found the feet of Freeman, who deflected the ball over to Aly Vargas and the sophomore midfielder found the back of the net, putting Coast ahead, 2-0.

Saddleback kept the pressure on and in the 64th minute, a header opportunity got past Harrier, but defender Sarah Guest managed to kick the ball out of harm's way before it crossed the goal line.

OCC (26 points in the OEC) will play at Fullerton College on Friday at 3 p.m. before wrapping up the regular season at home against Golden West (20 points) on Tuesday night, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. inside LeBard Stadium and on Feb. 15 against Irvine Valley (22 points) at 3 p.m. also inside LeBard Stadium.