The SRJC women’s soccer team beat Skyline College 3-2 in a hard earned victory in the second round of playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 23.
The Bear Cubs came back victorious after suffering a 6-0 loss to Folsom Lake College and a 1-0 loss to Sierra College in the conference tournament.
“At the end of the day what matters is not the score but the win, especially in the playoffs,” head coach Crystal Chaidez said. “The other thing I told them was [that] the soccer attacking-wise was unreal. I was so proud of them – some great, amazing soccer. Then I just told them ‘Look, you’re in the playoffs, and at the end of the day we can’t give up small little silly goals that we shouldn’t be giving up.”
The Bear Cubs started strong in the first half, gaining many goal-scoring opportunities and shots on target.
15 minutes into the game, the Bear Cubs forward Shae Dougherty scored the opening goal of the game on a long pass from Jocelyn Rojas-Garfias.
“I just had to time my run well so stayed inside to make sure that I blocked the defender off of me and then I was one-on-one with the keeper,” Dougherty said.
In the 30th minute, the Bear Cubs doubled the lead when Dougherty scored on a penalty shot.
“I got tripped in the box and we’ve been working on penalty kicks every single day at practice for the past few weeks, so it was just repetition,” Dougherty said. “All the practice paid off.”
The Trojans almost scored their first goal when forward Fabiana Bolanos had an open shot on goal, but missed wide.
Five minutes before halftime, Skyline midfielder Haylee Klinger dribbled into the box and scored to make it 2-1.
In the second half Trojans goalkeeper Thaily Anderberg made a fingertip save on a Taylor Gandy shot attempt to deny the Bear Cubs a third goal.
In the 65th minute Bear Cubs’ forward Olivia Hohnstein scored after having her initial shot deflected but followed through on the rebound to put SRJC up 3-1..
Skyline defender Erin Manning scored the final goal of the game to make it 3-2.
Coach Chaidez spoke about Dougherty’s performance. “I think it’s exactly how a captain who was not able to play in the last game, due to a red card, should show up,” she said. “She showed up for her team, she showed for herself and she’s had a great week of training and she put the team on her back and that’s exactly what [she] does every single game.”
“I think we really played together today,” Dougherty said. “I think we came out and wanted to win. We had the mentality that we needed to have to win the game and I think that’s really what it comes down to. That’s what we did today.”
The Bear Cubs were eliminated from the third round of playoffs after losing to Sierra College in a penalty shootout on Nov. 26.
