The Santa Rosa Junior College women’s soccer team beat Clovis Community College 2-0 at home on Friday for their fifth straight win to begin the season.
“We talked pregame today about gaining momentum, having a really good week this week, going into two big road trips next week, and getting closer to conference starting that momentum so when we hit conference we’re dotting our i’s, crossing our t’s and confident on both sides of the ball,” head coach Crystal Chaidez said.
SRJC had a solid defense that didn’t allow the Clovis Crush to have any opportunities to score and the forwards would pressure which made Clovis make mistakes and retrieve the ball again. The first 10 minutes were slow as the Bear Cubs controlled the possession of the ball.
In the 15th minute, SRJC midfielder Olivia Hohnstein crossed the ball in the middle of the penalty box Bear Cubs’ forward Taylor Gandy put the ball in the back of the net off a rebound to make it 1-0.
SRJC center backs didn’t give any space to the forwards and prevented any goal scoring opportunities in the first half. In the second half the Bear Cubs almost doubled their lead after the Crush goalkeeper deflected Hohnstein’s shot on goal.
In the 55th minute, the referee called a penalty for handball on Clovis. SRJC forward Shae Dougherty nailed the penalty kick to give the Bear Cubs a 2-0 lead. “I had to take a deep breath, I don’t usually take penalty kicks in games, it was kind of a first for me. I kept my cool and placed it in the corner,” Dougherty said.
Dougherty pressured every player to take the ball away from the team and would come back to help the defense. “A big part of playing as an attacking player is also your defensive position, and that what I always try to do as an attacking player is make play predictable and force it one way and try to win as many battles as I can to the top,” Dougherty said.
In the 81st minute SRJC defender Kaiya Gargaring got booked for a foul on Crush player Jasmin Jauregui.
SRJC’s strong defense has helped keep four clean sheets in a row. With this victory they have won all their five games to begin the season. “We’ve been working really hard and that’s a goal of ours is to have at least half of our preconference games be shutouts and clean sheets, we talked about it before the game, and we really focus on defense as a group,” Chaidez said.
Chaidez spoke about the great season her team has had so far. “They have been working really hard and that’s a goal of ours is to have at least half of our pre-conference games be shutouts and clean sheets, we talk about it before the game, and we really focus on defense as a group,” Chaidez said.
SRJC will play their next game at Evergreen Valley College at 5 p.m. on Tuesday Sept 10.
