The Women’s Soccer team defeated American River College 2-0 on Friday in a conference quarterfinal match at home.
In the Big 8 Conference championship tournament, the second seed Hawks matched up with seventh seed ARC in what would be a rematch from October and the Hawks advanced to semifinals with a win.
“ARC is a scrappy team, and they compete,” Head Coach Cesar Plascensia said. “They had a lot of numbers defensively so it wasn’t easy.”
The Hawk’s first goal came in the 11th minute off the foot of freshman forward Rosalee Beckham, assisted by freshman midfielder Mandy Thao.
“I saw an open opportunity, took an outside touch and took a hail mary and just shot it,” Beckham Said. “After that it shifted the momentum, we all just stepped it up after that.”
CRC dominated their possessions and were able to limit ARC’s opportunities, keeping them scoreless.
“We’ve been playing really good defensively,” Plascensia said. “Today was no different, we’ve been doing it all year.”
The Hawks put the game out of reach when freshman forward Quinne Ansley found the back of the net off of an assist from freshman forward Angelina Ortiz in the 84th minute.
Beckham attributed their determination to shutting out ARC.
“We didn’t let down,” Beckham said. “Although they were very aggressive, keeping up with the tempo and playing how we should be playing was big.”
The Hawks will match up against the Sierra College Wolverines in a semifinal match on Tuesday for a match that previously resulted in a 0-0 draw.
“We just gotta be prepared,” Plascencia said. “We just gotta be sharp on Monday in training and come out and let it go.”
The Hawks look to finish on more opportunities and carry the momentum forward.
The team’s victory pushes CRC to 11-2-5 overall and 6-0-3 in conference play.
“We need to finish our chances more often,” Beckham said. “When we play tougher teams there’s not gonna always be as many opportunities so we need to take advantage of what we have.”