The Lady Hornets came away with the victory over Mt. SAC 9-7 at home Friday morning to sweep the regular season series with the Mounties.
Fullerton’s Alicia Tully and Grace Schade both scored twice while Destiny Hernandez led the team with three goals in the victory.
Heading into Friday’s contest, the Lady Hornets had just ended their second double digit win streak of the season at the hands of Riverside.
“Losses are going to happen, and unfortunately a couple things didn’t go our way [at Riverside],” said Roy Contreras, Lady Hornets assistant coach. “We don’t think of it as anything negative or falling off, we’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. I think we’re in a really good spot right now.”
Mt. Sac was 20-3 coming into the contest, but two of those losses came by way of the Lady Hornets.
In the first quarter, FC got the scoring started by getting two early goals from Schade and Hernandez to take a 2-0 lead. Mt. SAC would respond and shorten the Mounties’ deficit at 2-1. Tully would get one back and end the first up 3-1.
Stout defense between the two squads kept the score at 3-1 for the majority of the second quarter. Just before halftime, the Mounties scored to make the game 3-2.
Hernandez appeared to score her second goal of the game putting the Lady Hornets up 4-2, but hat goal was taken off the board due to a clock error by the timekeeper. FC would regain possession, but were unable to score and headed into halftime 3-2.
In the third, Hernandez was able to get that goal back and put the Lady Hornets up 4-2 within 30 seconds of the starting whistle. Tully got her second goal as well, extending the team’s lead at 5-2.
Mt. SAC replied with a Tiana Wilson goal that made it 5-3.
The Lady Hornets kept the Mounties at bay with goals from Hart Garcia and Marissa Vaccher, increasing the lead to 7-3. The Mounties would score once more in the third, ending it at 7-4.
The Lady Hornets grabbed their biggest lead of the day when Schade’s second goal hit the back of the net at the start of the fourth to make it 8-4.
The Mounties would score again to make it 8-5, but the Lady Hornet’s high scorer of the day, Hernandez made it a hat-trick and gave her team back their four goal lead at 9-5.
The Mounties trying to avoid a blowout, ramped up their offensive intensity and scored two more goals to close out the game 9-7, but by then, they were running out of time and the game was out of reach.
“Our persistence on defense is what carried us throughout the game,” said Contreras. “We held our composure very well [at the end of the game] and we did a really good job of holding the lead.”
The Lady Hornets (23-3, 4-1) next game will be at the OEC Tournament at Riverside City College on Nov. 5, at 1 p.m. FC earned a first round bye as the No. 2 seed, so the second round opponent is TBD.
