The Cosumnes River College Women’s soccer team played at home against the Sierra College Wolverines on Oct. 13 with the game ending in a 0-0 draw.
CRC forced Sierra to drop down to the number two seed in the Big 8 conference, while CRC continued to hold their spot at number three.
“I thought we played great. Sierra is a really good team, one of the best teams in the state,” said Head Coach of CRC’s Women’s soccer Cesar Plasencia. “I thought we performed really well, just didn’t find a way to get a goal.”
CRC had good communication in the first half by calling for the ball, passing and utilizing their back half when necessary. There were a lot of 1-2 plays and through balls in the offensive half which lead to chances for CRC to score, but they were unsuccessful.
Plasencia said the entire back line played well as both teams’ defensive lines worked hard to stop their opponents from scoring. CRC’s attacking third had many shots on the goal in both halves but was unable to get one through the net.
CRC favored one side of the field for the majority of the game which led to turnovers. Sierra put pressure on their defensive line numerous times throughout the game, however they also failed to put points on the board.
Freshman left-attacking midfielder Brenda Jimenez said the team played really well and she felt good about the game.
“I thought we definitely could’ve put more goals away but I think we played really good collectively and as a team,” Jimenez said.
Within 18 minutes of the game, CRC’s defender Alana Smith, got a yellow card. There were numerous fouls on both Sierra and CRC and in some cases the center referee called these fouls after the fact.
The intensity in the second half was stronger than in the first as both teams were determined to get a goal. CRC started off the second half with more energy and attacked Sierra’s defense.
Freshman center forward Dayanara De La Cruz said she thought the game was very competitive.
“We put our all in. We competed and we had a lot of possession but it was going back and forth,” De La Cruz said. “It was a good game.”
Hannah Finley from Sierra got ejected with 10 minutes left by getting a red card. She had two yellow cards in the second half, the first for pulling on the jersey of a CRC player and the second for moving the ball away from another CRC player.
Sophomore center defender Katherine Smith, Alana Smith’s twin sister, said the team picked up their intensity this game and the back line did a good job keeping everything in front of them.
“We’ve been kind of in a slump where we have been starting off our games really slow and we had the energy throughout the whole game,” Katherine Smith said. “We just need to work on finding some finishes and then we’ll be golden.”
Women’s soccer will play again on Oct. 17 at American River College against the Beavers, whose record is 0-3 in conference and has six wins, six loses and one tie overall.