The Santa Rosa Junior College women’s soccer team beat Modesto Junior College 5-1 in their first round of the conference tournament on Friday, November 8.
After a loss to Sierra College to close out the regular season, the Bear Cubs entered the match looking to get back to their dominant ways they had shown all season.
“In so many ways, what’s special about this group is that we’ve stayed with the formation that’s very attacking minded and some moments where it hasn’t come so easy to score but I think that’s what they always kind of expect it to come,” head coach Crystal Chaidez said.
The Bear Cubs and the Pirates matched each other in the first half, both getting multiple shot attempts off with nothing to show for it.
Looking to take control of the match, the Bear Cubs refocused at half-time.
“Our half time talk was different,” Chaidez said. “We just kind of refocused at half time. I haven’t had to have really that tough talk at half time yet. It always comes to a point in the season where everyone’s a little fatigued; mentally fatigued, physical fatigued and then you have those sticky moments as a group of what direction we’re gonna finish our season, so we just kind of looked in the mirror and focused on what we really wanted to get out of the game. I think kind of going back to just having fun, you know not really a lot of pressure but just enjoying the game as a team,” Chaidez said.
Five minutes into the second half, SRJC forward Shae Dougherty ran past two defenders into the box and shot the ball to score the first goal of the game. The Pirates responded as Forward Williams scored the equalizing goal in the 55th minute.
SRJC took the lead back when Dougherty made a through pass to forward Taylor Gandy who ran from behind the defender and scored to make it 2-1.
“I saw her run, I saw her space, I heard her calling calling for the ball, I had to hesitate for just a second, give space for the center backs to open up and I split them right through and she’s [Gandy] super super fast, so I knew she was gonna get there,” Dougherty said.
The Bear Cubs extended their lead as an SRJC player headed the ball which hit the bar and Dougherty came in from behind and tapped it in.
Dougherty spoke about her two goals.
“First one was off of a really good ball play by our winger and she played it through, I kinda had to stall the defender, run through and then I just was one-vs.-one with the keeper, kept my head, kept calm just played it on the ground nice and simple, and then the other one was off of a header in the box and it hit the post and I had a really narrow angle at it, I had to keep my head and put it in the back of the net,” Dougherty said.
SRJC midfielder Ashley Vigil scored the 4th goal of the game as she headed the ball in the back of the net from a corner kick.
SRJC Midfielder Sulema Para Solorio scored the final goal of the match on a shot from inside the box.
The Bear Cubs competed in the semi-finals of the conference tournament at Folsom lake College on Tuesday, Nov. 12 and were defeated 6-0. They will play at Sierra College for the third place match on Friday, November 15th at 3 p.m.
