On Tuesday afternoon, Fullerton College faced Irvine Valley College in a home match where both teams saw equal opportunities to claim the win. However, the Lasers were able to out-execute the Hornets, winning the match 3-0.
Starting off strong, the Hornets dominated possession time, keeping the Lasers on the Hornets’ side of the field. Although the Hornets came out strong, they were not able to finish off any of their opportunities.
“We’ve been working on passing patterns from the defense into the attack. And I felt like at the beginning of the game we really had a good rhythm, and the things were going well,” said Hornets head coach Pam Lewin.
After a lot of back-and-forth between the teams for the first half of the match, the Lasers scored the first goal at the 30-minute mark.
Irvine Valley sophomore defender Vienna Vargas booted a corner kick towards the front of the net. The ball then ricocheted off an FC defender, resulting in an own goal. Momentum shifted away from a Fullerton team that had controlled part of the first half.
Lasers’ sophomore midfielder Natalia Guzman added another goal under Irvine’s belt at the 42-minute mark, going right over Fullerton’s goalkeeper freshman Nyla Contreras‘ shoulder 20 yards out.
The Hornets were facing a 2-0 deficit heading into halftime. After a solid start, the Hornets fell flat to close out the half.
Five minutes into the second half, the Hornets did not come out ready to play, as Lasers’ freshman forward Jocelyn Quinonez demonstrated great ball control, leading to a goal at the 50-minute mark, making the score 3-0.
“We didn’t take shots when we had the chance or we took the shot too soon,” said Lewin. “I felt like in a lot of ways, we outplayed IVC. We just didn’t score the goals, but that’s how you win the game.”
Fans of the Hornets (2-11-1, 1-7-1) can wonder if the constant rotation of goalies caused a bit of dysfunction on the defensive end, which seemingly led to Fullerton’s offensive struggles and not being able to gain possession of the round ball for the majority of this match.
Fullerton trotted out three different goalies, starting off with Contreras, then freshman Haley Abeleen and lastly, freshman Anjelina Halley. Each goalie surrendered a goal, but all earned multiple saves.
The game saw the intense levels rise up with aggressiveness and players tripping each other, leading to Lasers’ freshman midfielder Annika Lepage getting injured; she was pulled out for the rest of the game.
Irvine Valley’s win on Tuesday broke their recent losing streak of three games and continued Fullerton’s winless streak of six games.
Lasers’ (5-11, 4-5) freshman goalkeeper Sydnee Salamoff recorded an impressive game, keeping the Hornets silent and notching eight out of eight saves on the pitch.
The Hornets’ next match will see them traveling down to play against a struggling Santa Ana (1-13, 0-9), who has lost 13 in a row, at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27.
