Hornets’ sophomore Sheccid Carrillo showed her true impact during Tuesday’s OEC home game against the Dons, netting two of Fullerton’s three goals en route to a 3-0 victory.
After an underwhelming first half in which the Hornets saw their scoreless streak extend to eight halves in total over their last four games, the Hornets needed to play a perfect second half to secure a win.
The two teams remained competitive until the 68-minute mark when Carrillo unleashed a “Banana Kick” that ended the deadlock.
Fullerton College (2-6, 1-2) was finally able to gain that feeling they hadn’t felt in almost two weeks in the goal and win departments.
“I had been practicing taking those shots for a while now. I just really wanted to concentrate and know that if I did it the way I practiced, I knew it was going to go in,” Carrillo said. “I tried to keep it simple and just tap it in where I didn’t see the goalie.”
That first goal unleashed a wave of momentum as just four minutes later, at the 72-minute mark, Hornets’ sophomore forward Yvonne Ventura, executed a chip shot sending the ball just out the reach of the Dons (1-7,0-3) goalie and into the back of the net for the Hornets’ second goal.
“Honestly I didn’t really think I was going to make it because I’m really bad at shooting from that side, but I guess my confidence was able to put it in and I was able to score it,” said Ventura.
Fullerton would not slow down as they struck once again at the 88-minute mark, when Carrillo received a perfectly executed crossing pass from freshman forward Danielle Narmi.
Carrillo’s second goal showed Fullerton’s drive to keep adding on, as Santa Ana looked completely stunned that Fullerton had scored three goals in just 20 minutes. The Dons carried their own struggles into this game, having not scored since their first game of the season. This was a “get right game” for both of these struggling teams, but it was Fullerton who came out on top.
“We’ve been practicing this for a while now where we just need to tap it in when we’re in front of the goal. And when I saw the opportunity, I asked for the cross. And I knew that a tap was going to get it because a goalkeeper was already off to the side,” said Carrillo.
In a game where mistakes get taken care of, the Dons paid the price. “We should have done better. We held to, I don’t know, 12 minutes left in the game, and we had a couple of breakdowns, and we just need to do better. We’re missing some players, but you know, there’s the next time,” said head coach of the Dons Jaymie Baquero.
The Hornets look to carry their momentum from this match to their next one as they hit the road to face the Saddleback Bobcats (8-0-1, 2-0-1) at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 6.
