By Noe Ortega
A second-half goal and a lack of finishing was enough for East Los Angeles College to fall 1-0 to Pasadena City College on Friday at home.
With two loses and a tie in their last three outings, the Huskies have not won a game since October 24 against Long Beach College.
ELAC is now 5-10-3 overall and are officially out of playoff contention in the South Coast Conference-North.
The Huskies had one last play in minute 87 where freshman midfielder Vanessa Torres was given space to take a shot but PCC freshman goalkeeper Lily Urumieh blocked it.
The blocked shot hit the post to go out for a corner kick.
PCCs’ goalkeeper had three key saves in the last fifteen minutes of the game that allowed the score to stay 1-0.
“We came out too casual. We kind of dictated the pace of the game after coming from a hard-fought 4-3 loss on Tuesday to the number one team in the conference (Rio Hondo),” ELAC head coach Tessa Troglia said.
“We took [a] last place [team] lightly and, unfortunately, the lack of effort showed,”
In minute 67, PCC had a corner kick that ELAC freshman goalkeeper Julia Rivera came out to catch, but she didn’t come out in time.
PCC sophomore defender Summer Hofstad out-jumped ELAC defense and scored the first goal of the game.
“It wasn’t how we expected it to be. After that first goal we lost our heads.We put our heads down and didn’t really communicate or push each other.
“After that goal we couldn’t come back from it,” said sophomore midfielder Marilyn Castanon.
The Huskies suffered the loss of its captain, freshman defender Ashley Lopez, in the second minute of the game.
She went in for a tackle and came out injured.
“Her (Lopez) presence, her attitude (and) her effort is just like a domino effect. When she’s working hard, the expectations to work hard are there,” said Troglia.
“We love to have her in the game. She’s a big impact player for us.”
ELAC went into halftime 0-0 after a slow start in the first half.
According to Troglia, ELAC was boring and its players needed to be more aggressive.
The Huskies began the second half by switching out freshman goalkeeper Adriana Huerta, sophomore midfielder Jenny Trejo and freshman midfielder Ema Lorenzo.
“I thought we fought hard. We’re suffering a lot of injuries. ELAC’s very well coached (and is a) very good team.
“I’m just happy that we came out with the win,” said PCC head coach Reggie Rivas.
The team will play its last game this Friday against Compton College at 4 p.m. at home in a conference crossover match.