The Hornets’ scoring woes reared their ugly head again, this time at home against the Santiago Canyon Hawks on Tuesday afternoon, losing 3-0.
Fullerton not only struggled with their offense, but their defensive side was unable to hold up against Santiago Canyon. A fast start was needed, especially against a really tough Hawks team, but that was not in the cards for the Hornets.
It did not take long for the Hawks to create some action, as the first goal of the game was scored by sophomore midfielder Marlene Ruiz at the 22-minute mark.
“I just went with the flow, and then the ball came to me and that is when I decided to attempt to make a shot to make sure it went in and it did,” said Ruiz.
Hawks sophomore midfielder Jordan Salinas was able to add on for her team in the first half with a 30-yard chip shot goal at the 41-minute mark, putting the Hawks up 2-0 at halftime.
In a season where the Hornets (2-8) have not been known for their second half play, they needed their best second half effort to date to really turn this one around.
Instead, the poor second halves trend continued for the Hornets as the Hawks had a plethora of chances to score goals, but were only able to capitalize on one of them with that lone goal being scored by way of a header at the 65-minute mark from freshman forward Rayleen Chairez.
“Santiago is a really well-organized team, we had a couple of breakdowns that resulted in goals scored against us, ” said Fullerton College head coach Pam Lewin. “We just have to finish our chances when we get in front of the goal.”
Hornets’ Freshman goalkeeper Nyla Contreras suffered an injury after saving a hard kick from Santiago Hawks shortly before the end of the first half. She was later replaced by freshman defender Haley Abeelen for the rest of the match.
Contreras had collected an impressive 13 saves against the Hawks in the first half alone, Contreras did all she could, especially with the Hornets defense not being up to par, constantly leaving her on an island.
Santiago Canyon (9-1-1) came onto the pitch riding a seven-game winning streak, now making it eight after the defeat of Fullerton. Santiago head coach Ian Woodhead believes that his team always has a good game plan that is going to put the team in the best position to win their games.
“Our team works hard at trying to judge themselves by their own standards and see how good we can be,” said Woodhead.
The Hornets will face another tough task next time out when they hit the road to face their rival Cypress College (8-2-2) at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 13.
