The Cosumnes River College women’s soccer team squared off against the Foothill College Owls, both looking for a win to advance to the state championships.

The Hawks were up against fierce competition, as the Owls had not lost game since Oct. 1, and were  undefeated against Big 8 Conference.

With a controversial end, the Owls would continue their streak, defeating the Hawks in a narrow 2-1 win.

The Owls will go on to play in the state championships hosted at CRC.

“We’ll play one of the Southern California teams and we’re just excited to be there,” said Foothill interim head coach Alan Kute.

In the first half, possession went back and forth, but the Owls would dominate the Hawks in offensive chances, keeping the pressure on with multiple shots that would go wide, and a few off the crossbar.

“We gave them more of the play than we wanted, but first 15 to 20 minutes we hit the post three times, we were pressing, pressing,” Kute said.

It would be the Hawks who would close out the first half of the game with the lead, with sophomore midfielder Crystal Vega putting the ball into the top right corner of the Owls goal after a deflection.

The second half started much the same as the first did, with a lot of back and forth play.

In the 76th minute, CRC was called for a handball in the box, which brought the crowd to their feet as Owls’ sophomore midfielder Brittany Squacia stepped up for a penalty kick that went past Hawks’ freshman goalkeeper Anna Brown to tie the game.

“I thought I played well,” Squacia said. “But more importantly I thought our team played phenomenally.”

The game remained tied until freshman forward Milli Cosare put a deflected ball into the Hawks goal to give the Owls the lead in stoppage time.

“I was just focusing on the ball, just watching it and when it came to me I just gave it my all,” Cosare said. “I think I played pretty good, I played my heart out.”

With play time dwindling, the Hawks started to put intense offensive pressure on the Owls, forcing the ball up the field into the attacking third.

The Owls managed to take possession and cross midfield, but CRC’s freshman midfielder Brianna Ascencio broke away with the ball, forcing her way into the box before being tripped up by a Foothill defender and crashing into the opposing goalkeeper.

Almost the entire population of Hawks’ supporters in the stands stood up to boo the referees for not calling a penalty on Foothill. The Foothill goalkeeper kicked the ball across the field before Ascencio was off the ground, bringing not only another round of boos from the crowd, but both Hawks’ head coach Cesar Plasencia and assistant head coach Leo Rojas to the field.

Plasencia and Rojas both screamed at the referees for not calling the penalty which would have resulted in an attempt to tie the game for the Hawks. Rojas went face-to-face with the ref on the field and the incident resulted in both coaches being ejected from the game moments before the whistle blew, ending the matchup and sending Foothill to the championships.

“It was a bad call by the referee, that should have been a PK,” Brown said. “My coaches were fair to be upset but they shouldn’t have gone off the way they did.”

Brown thought the Hawks did not play to the best of their abilities.

“I don’t think the girls played as hard as they could,” Brown said. “It was a tough match, we were a little off our game and they just wanted it more than we did.”