By Noe Ortega
Two first-half goals were enough for women’s soccer to lose 2-1, its second conference game of the season, to Rio Hondo College at home on Friday.
Sophomore midfielder Stephanie Galvan scored a goal from outside of the penalty box in minute 76 to cut the lead in half.
Galvan scored her third goal of the season with six games played.
The Huskies had 13 minutes left to tie the game.
However they did not react in time and fell short.
“Changing the lineup in the second half really helped us, and just getting girls that really want to be out here. We don’t have any excuses and that’s been our problem for the season, just excuses,” said East Los Angeles College head coach Tessa Troglia.
Rio Hondo sophomore attacker Madison Mader scored twice.
Her first goal of the game came in minute 21 off a ground ball that got past ELAC’s defense to give her a one-on-one opportunity to score.
“We seemed evenly matched in the beginning. Unfortunately, we had a few players that got sloppy, tired, and kind of gave up on us, and that hurt us,” Troglia said.
Mader scored her second goal 15 minutes after converting the first one when the ball bounced off an ELAC defender, leaving her alone to dribble past freshman goalkeeper Julia Rivera.
Mader scored another goal two minutes after, but the goal was disallowed after being called offside, which could’ve given her a hat- trick.
“Every game is a challenge. The idea is that when there’s an opponent, we have to do what we have to do to be ready to play, and that’s what I think we did today,” said Rio Hondo head coach Jennifer Tanaka-Hoshijo.
ELAC sophomore defender Brenda Lizaola was carried off the field after attempting to prevent the second goal by sliding and colliding with the goal post.
Troglia made a change to the front by putting two attackers instead of one and playing with more possession of the ball.
ELAC began to attack more.
“In the beginning we let the nerves get the best of us, but then toward the second half we just didn’t want to lose at home, so we built off of that coming into the second half,” said freshman defender Ashley Lopez.
This was Rio Hondo’s first win against ELAC since joining the South Coast-North Conference last year.
ELAC currently ranks last in its conference with two losses.
The Huskies tied yesterday 1-1 to Pasadena City College, second conference game.
Sophomore forward Jennifer Toledo scored ELAC’s only goal of the game.
The Huskies next game is on Friday at 4 p.m. against Chaffey College, another South Coast-North Conference match.