Soccer women dominate
Benjamin
Urcuyo
Contributing Writer
 |
| Benjamin
Urcuyo Contributing Photographer |
| The lady Thunderbirds defeated
Phoenix College 8-0 in a home game played Sept. 17. Tia Pantano
is shown fighting for the ball as the team persistently pushed
to claim the shut-out victory. |
Ranked 6th in the nation coming into the game, with a 4-1-1 record
(undefeated at home), the Women Thunderbirds’ soccer team
appeared to have nothing to worry about as the unranked Phoenix
College Bears (2-3) arrived at Riggs Field Sept. 18.
Coming into this game after a scoreless overtime tie against Cochise
College just a few days before, and without their team-leading
scorer, Kristina Burris, the team members weren’t too sure
of themselves.
Head coach Ken Parsons said, “Going into it, I don’t
feel good about any game. You have to play and execute to get
the right outcome.”
It appeared his concern was appropriate.
From the start, the MCC Thunderbirds dominated field position
by maintaining ball control on the Bears’ half of the field.
After the first half, the teams took the field and the T-birds
pressure remained the same. This time Lauren Thomas found the
back of the net to give MCC a 1-0 lead.
This would remain the score until the half.
“At half-time, we stressed what happened in that loss to
Chandler/Gilbert and that we needed to come out immediately and
establish ourselves,” said Parsons.
Only 32 seconds into the second half, Tia Pantano scooped kicked
a shot that floated over the Bears’ goalkeeper to extend
the lead (2-0).
Verena Andrade extended the T-birds lead to 3-0.
The Bears’ showed some resilience as they put on an offensive
attack of their own, but it was short-lived. The T-birds turned
the action back to their offensive by setting up Alli Landon’s
score.
As the girls “rallied with Alli,” with a 4-0 lead,
it was all Thunderbirds from there on out.
Verena Andrade scored her second goal, followed by Bridget Barrasso’s
two consecutive goals. With a 7-0 lead, Megan Hollander made sure
they took this momentum to the finish as she scored a late goal
to make it an 8-0 rout.
Parsons said he was surprised at the score, but also said, “They’ve
been putting up big results against teams. I thought we were in
for a battle in the second half.”
“We’ve allowed a lead to slip away before,”
he added.
“I think we did a great job scoring that second goal early,
and then keeping them coming so we could rest some of our players
for the big game (Sept. 20).”
The lady Thunderbirds extended their record to 5-1-1.
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