Pirates advance with 3-1 win over Mounties

COSTA MESA -- A few deep breaths and some solid execution proved to be the difference for the Orange Coast College women's soccer team as the Pirates topped Mt. San Antonio, 3-1, in the play-in round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs on Thursday at the OCC Soccer Complex.

After a tense first half of play that saw OCC trail, 1-0, the 15th-seeded Pirates (14-5-3) regrouped, connected on passes and found positive results against the 18th-seeded Mounties (7-9-4).

"We just needed to relax and do what we know how to do," OCC head coach Kevin Smith said. "We were a bit nervous and tense in the first half, but we came out, executed our offense and once we got that first goal early on, that really settled us down and we went from there."

Mt. SAC scored in the 11th minute off a nice pass from Hallie Culotti, that found its way to Samantha Barreto, who went down the right side and scored into the left-corner of the goal, putting the Mounties up, 1-0. The Pirates, who outshot Mt. SAC 7-4 in the first half, had three high-level scoring opportunties, but could not capitalize on any of them.

The aforementioned first goal for Coast came in the 52nd minute off of the foot of Lupe Rodriguez, who received a long cross pass from Emily Malec that slipped by the Mt. SAC defense. Rodriguez controlled the pass, then, slipped a shot into the goal past Mounties' goalkeeper Britain Chapura to tie things up at 1.

Just 15 minutes later, Malec again beat her defender down the left side and sent a shot in on goal. Chapura made the save, but the rebound went to the middle, where Sydnee Busby was and the sophomore goal-scorer made no mistake, ripping the free ball into a wide-open net to give Coast a 2-1 lead.

After earning the first two assists of the game for OCC, Malec got in on the fun and took a pass from Rodriguez and scored past a charging Chapura to give the Pirates that all-important two-goal cushion.

That was more than enough as the Coast defense and midfield play, led by the duo of Jordan Moore and Rachel Moxley, went to work and held the Mounties off of the scoreboard. Their strong play helped lighten the load for goalkeeper Tara Tellez, who notched five saves in the win.

The Pirates will now take on a familiar foe in the first round of the playoffs as they travel to Santiago Canyon to face the No. 2-seeded Hawks (19-0-1) on Saturday, beginning at 2 p.m. Coast went 0-2 against the Hawks this year, falling at SCC, 2-0, on Sept. 16 and 3-1 at OCC on Oct. 21. 

"It'll be the type of hard-fought game where both teams will have maybe 3-4 chances the entire day and whoever can capitalize on those chances will win," Smith said. "They've seen us ... we've seen them. There won't be any surprises out there. It should be a real battle out there."