The Lady Vaqueros took the field in high hopes of a victory, but it didn’t take much effort, as they defeated Los Angeles Valley College 4-0 on a windy Oct. 5 night at Sartoris Field.
The first goal was scored on a breakaway from sophomore forward Tatiana Aguirre. However, 10 minutes before that she had a similar shot on goal but missed wide right, but she regained her composure and came back strong to give her team the first lead of the match.
Jorge Mena, head coach for the Vaqueros, felt at ease after the third goal in the second half and sat down with his players to relax and watch the rest of the game. His 4-4-2 formation helped his team control the ball with Claudia Orellana and Evelyn A. Herrarte controlling the mid-field and Jackie Cuevas heading up the defense as sweeper, the Vaqueros kept their opponents from gaining much access into Vaquero territory.
“We decided to go with an extra mid-fielder to prevent any sort of attack,” said Coach Mena after the win. It worked well as the Vaqueros controlled the ball most throughout the entire game, especially in the second half.
The first half ended in a battle of ball possession and going into halftime each team had to make significant adjustments to exploit the other team’s weakness.
The second half began like the first, a great deal of passing and the same amount of intensity. Suddenly, as sophomore left-wing Olga Aguirre ran up the sideline, she was tackled brutally and fell to the ground. She clinched her leg and rolled on the field in agonizing pain. Spectators looked on with concern as the trainer ran onto the field to accompany her needs. After a few minutes with Coach Mena and the trainer by her side, she slowly picked her self up and gave the player that tripped her a stare. “I felt angry and I wanted to play harder,” said Aguirre.
In the 30th minute, the Vaqueros were awarded a free kick on the left side of the field, 30 yards out and up came Aguirre. She set herself up, ran up to the ball and booted it towards the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper positioned herself too far out and the high arch from the ball sailed over her head, underneath the crossbar and into the net for a 2-0 lead.
The redemption was great and Aguirre felt ecstatic as she jumped into the arms of a fellow player and rejoiced over her score with fellow teammates. “I felt relieved and happy and this goal was not just for me, but for the team,” said Aguirre.
The pace of the game shifted heavily onto the shoulders of the Vaqueros, and Valley College was limited to only three shots on goal for the second half. In the 37th minute of play, sophomore Claudia Orellana fought off defenders in the middle of the field, dodged through heavy traffic and launched a 25 foot blast over the head of the goalkeeper to shut the lights out of any chance of a comeback for Valley.
Coach Mena was more relaxed after the third goal than any point of this game, so he decided to sit by the players to watch an additional goal by Catalina Sanchez to finalize the 4-0 beating. With this victory, the lady Vaqueros are standing at 6-3-3 and their next opponent is Citrus College. They will be playing at Citrus on Friday, at 3 p.m.
