September 5, 2006

Women’s Soccer:
No. 1 Long Beach pounds Santa Barbara 8-2 in home opener

The No. 1 nationally-ranked Long Beach City College women’s soccer cruised to a big 8-2 non-conference win over Santa Barbara City College on Tuesday at LBCC.

Long Beach led 2-1 at halftime before exploding for six second-half goals.

After 30 minutes of scoreless soccer, freshman forward Elisha Perez (Santa Fe HS) finally got the Vikings on the board with the first of two goals on one-on-one breakaway.

SBCC tied it up with a score by Morgan Cami in the 41st minute before Long Beach retook the lead on freshman midfielder Allie Escobedo’s (Canyon HS) goal in the 44th minute.

With Santa Barbara goalie Ivette Guerrero drawn out, Escobedo nailed a shot from 30 feet out that sailed in.

Santa Barbara (0-2) scored first in the second half, getting another goal from Cami that tied the game at 2-2.

From there it was all Long Beach as the Vikings tallied six straight unanswered goals.

Freshman forward Nancy Gandarilla (Millikan HS) scored twice, Perez knocked in her second goal of the day, and LBCC got single scores from freshman forward Hannah Escamilla (Paramount HS), freshman midfielder Melody Castellon (Hamilton HS), and freshman defender Daisy Vega (Paramount HS).

In goal for the Vikings, sophomore Rita Brown (Valencia HS) posted six saves in 80 minutes of play and sophomore Sarah Phillips (Los Alamitos HS) had one save.

LBCC (1-1-1) returns to action on Wednesday (Sep 6) when it hosts Santa Monica College in a 4pm non-conference game.