Late fight impressive for Pirates in 1-0 loss to Hawks
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Santiago Canyon (13-0-1, 7-0-1) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
|
Orange Coast (5-7-1, 0-5-0) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
COSTA MESA -- It has not been an easy stretch of the women's soccer calendar for the Orange Coast College Pirates. Playing their second of three straight against two of the top three teams in the state, the Pirates hosted Santiago Canyon and gave the Hawks all they could handle before falling, 1-0 on Friday at the OCC Soccer Complex.
This hard-fought match against the state's No. 2 team came less than 48 hours after battling state No. 3, Saddleback, to a 2-0 loss on Wednesday night. The Pirates and Gauchos will play again on Tuesday night inside LeBard Stadium, beginning at 7 p.m.
The lone goal of the match came in the 15th minute when some open space led to a great scoring opportunity for the Hawks (13-0-1, 7-0-1 in the Orange Empire Conference). Cameryn Toole ripped a shot from the right side that rang off of the side post, but the ball landed at the feet of teammate Cassie Lewis, who found the back of the net and scored what proved to be the only goal of the afternoon.
SCC had several other Grade-A scoring opportunities, but freshman goalkeeper Jessica Gardner came up big on several occasions, stopping 9-of-10 shots on goal. Her most impressive stop came late in the second half when a shot off the foot of Mimi Diaz-Casarrubias was heading towards the lower-left corner, but Gardner dove and got just enough of the shot to deflect it out of harm's way.
OCC's best opportunity to even the match came in the 75th minute, when a few connected passes ended up giving Pirate forward Lilly Carroll a one-on-one battle near the goal, but her left-foot shot banged off of the left post and out of bounds.
After a first half dominated by the Hawks, OCC played a more aggressive second half and managed to bring the match to more of a stalemate in the second half.
