By Cortez Cruz Serrato
The East Los Angeles College women’s soccer team beat El Camino College 4-1 in a South Coast Conference match up Oct. 28 at home in Weingart Stadium after its one-sided loss to Cerritos College Oct. 24.
ELAC is now 8-4-3 overall, 5-2-2 in the SCC.
Huskies Head Coach Tessa Troglia said that getting the win against El Camino after the loss against Cerritos, the SCC’s first place team, was important and that ELAC needed to bounce back quickly from the loss.
The Huskies needed a team effort against El Camino to make up for the loss of playing without Carla Quijada. Quijada missed her second consecutive game yesterday after injuring her knee in last Tuesday’s game against Los Angeles Harbor College.
Quijada leads the team with 21 goals and she is currently the third leading scorer in the SCC according to Troglia. Quijada’s doctors have not yet cleared her to return to the field.
Troglia said that she was pleased that different contributors were able to step up and that sophomore Cristal Montoya and freshman Arye Loone took on prominent roles.
Sophomore midfielder Cristal Montoya made up for Quijada’s absence, leading the Huskies with two goals.
Montoya’s two goals proved to be the most important of the game. Her first goal tied the game in the tenth minute and her second goal in the last minutes of the first half became the deciding goal of the game.
Montoya said that scoring both goals felt good, especially her second that was assisted by sophomore forward Maria Beccerra. She said the victory was more important because ELAC needed to win in order to remain eligible for postseason play.
Troglia said that she has been encouraging Montoya to shoot more often and she was hopeful that this game will give her the confidence to contribute more offensively.
El Camino’s Head Coach John Britton was disappointed with his team’s weak defensive performance in the second half.
“East LA (College) was a better team but all four goals were preventable. It annoys me that we worked really hard (throughout the game) to give up two goals late in the game that were clearly avoidable,” Britton said.
Goals from Loone and sophomore Blakely Ficenec late in the second half put the game out of reach for El Camino.
The Huskies are currently in rank fourth place in the SCC with six games remaining on their schedule.
Troglia said that the win against El Camino was a game that the Huskies should have won and every game is a must win.
According to Troglia, the Huskies have to win the rest of their games in order to make the Southern California Regional playoffs.
Trigola said that she will have a better idea about the team’s playoff hopes after their game on Friday against Long Beach City College.
She also said that the players on the team are maintaining a high commitment level this late in the season and that the Huskies just have to focus on taking it “one game at a time.”
