Game Stats

October 16, 2007

Women’s Soccer:
Long Beach defense solid in 1-0 upset win over No. 3 Cerritos

Sophomore forward Hannah Escamilla escaped for a second-half goal and the Long Beach City College defense held tough to defeat No. 3 nationally-ranked Cerritos College 1-0 in a South Coast Conference game at LBCC on Tuesday.

The win improved Long Beach to 11-2-2 overall and 4-2 in conference play, while Cerritos fell to 12-2-2 and 3-1-1 in the SCC.

For a majority of the first half, Long Beach controlled the offensive tempo and played solid defense to limit Cerritos’ scoring opportunities. Both teams managed to take just three shots each in the opening half.

The offensive play opened in the second. Cerritos was turned away on numerous occasions by LBCC sophomore goalkeeper Rachel Waters to keep the game scoreless.

The Vikings finally broke the deadlock in the 61st minute.

Freshman midfielder Mayra Carranza sent a long breakaway pass from midfield down the right sideline. Escamilla received the pass and on her second touch nailed a shot to the top-right corner past the diving arms of Cerritos goalie Chantal Cervero with the game-winning goal.

“It was a big win for us,” said LBCC co-head coach Alex Camargo. “The playoffs are just around the corner and we really needed the power points.”

Waters was credited with just three saves for Long Beach but she came out of the net to break up numerous Cerritos cross-passes and breakaway attempts to post the Vikings’ eighth shutout of the year. Cerritos outshot Long Beach 10-5 in the second half.

For the Falcons, Cervero posted two saves in 71 minutes and Rosario Mendoza finished out the contest, posting two saves over the final 19 minutes.

Long Beach is back in action on Friday when it hosts L.A. Harbor College in a 2 pm SCC game.