By Erik Luna
The women’s soccer team started conference play against Long Beach City College last Tuesday at Weingart Stadium resulting in a scoreless tie.
As a result, the Huskies are tied with LBCC for third place in South Coast Conference rankings, behind Cerritos and Mt. San Antonio.
ELAC drops to 3–2–3 overall, 0-0-1 in SCC play, while the Vikings are 4–2 –1 (0-0-1). The Huskies host Pasadena City College tomorrow.
The Huskies are ranked 18th statewide and is about even in scoring goals and defending them. The Huskies have scored a total of 15 goals in eight games while allowing sixteen.
LBCC’s Head Coach Alex Camargo said that Tuesday’s game could have gone either way, and that both teams were putting in all their efforts due to it being the first conference game.
Camargo also had some words with one of the referee’s over a foul decision.
“It was one of those games that if you’re on the other side you wouldn’t want that call on you,” Camargo said. “I thought it was a foul, but he was closer than I was,” he continued.
During the first 15 minutes of the game, LBCC had a shot off the crossbar that went in, but the referee did not allow the goal.
Both teams had many opportunities at the goal, yet both team’s defense proved to be too much.
“(Our defense) was really solid. That was one thing that was apparent,” Assistant Coach Richard Coria said.
LBCC’s midfield dominated most of the game, giving the Huskies a tough time to get good strings of passes.
According to Coria the only thing that the team needed was more communication.
“It might have been the combination of a lot of things. Nerves, mostly, because it’s the first game of conference,” Coria said about the loss.
“Everyody goes out hard, but when it’s conference it’s just a whole different story,” he continued.
During the last seconds of the game, Husky Jessica Guzman received a through ball into LBCC’s quarter field, Guzman tried to slot it under but the keeper foiled her efforts.
“We came out forcing too much overall as a team, but toward the end we didn’t have time to settle down and talk to each other. I can honestly say that last shot really hurt,” Guzman said.
Camargo said that he knew it was going to be a tough game coming into it.
“Tessa (Troglia, ELAC’s head coach) has been doing a great job with this team for the past couple of years,” Camargo said. “It’s a battle. It’s always a battle,” he concluded.