Following two straight draws, one on the road against West LA and the other at home vs. Antelope Valley to open up October, the Renegades women’s soccer team (5-1-3, 1-0-2 conference) wanted to continue to up the tempo heading into more crucial conference games.
In their sight was College of the Canyons here at the BC Sports Complex on Oct. 10, a team with an identical record. However, there was nothing identical about the performance and outcome of the game.
The Cougars of COC jumped out to an early 3-0 lead over the Renegades in the first 21 minutes and had no plans of looking behind.
Eight minutes later, COC’s Jennifer Mendez chipped in another goal adding to the onslaught.
Despite BC’s early struggles, the girls found a way to get something going right before half.
Victoria Pyle was tripped and fouled in the penalty box and gave Cassandra Boyer a much-needed opportunity to cut the deficit to three goals going into the half.
Entering the second half, BC goalkeeper Sidney Garcia had some key blocks to prevent COC from scoring, but Cougars forwards continued gaining ground and added on three more goals to finish off the game (two by Jennifer Brown). The Cougars finished the rout with a 7-1 victory, giving the Renegades their first conference loss.
“We just played really poorly. We have to win balls and I think we’re reacting to much,” head coach Scott Dameron explained.
Conference play didn’t get much easier as the tests got harder. Back on the road again, BC was ready to avenge the loss from the previous week with games at Citrus (6-5) and Santa Monica (10-1-1). The struggles however continued.
An early afternoon game in Glendora against the Owls of Citrus on Oct. 14, Citrus’ Cindy Ramirez racked in two goals in the first 15 minutes giving the Owls an early 2-0 lead.
Ramirez continued to key in as she assisted on a goal to teammate Amber Mace at the 33-minute mark for the 3-0 lead by halftime.
Cassandra Lopez (BC) scored her second conference goal of the season in the 64th minute to trim the lead, but with little time and another goal added by Natalie Ponce (Citrus) in the 83rd minute, the Owls cruised to a 4-1 win.
BC faced their last road test before a three-game home stand against a dominant Santa Monica club. Outside of their one loss, Santa Monica has been riding on a 10-game win streak prior to the meeting vs. BC.
Despite a pretty slow start on both ends in the first half, Santa Monica managed to get one goal in at the 24th minute by Cheyenne De Los Rios.
In the second half, Alyssa Ortega of Santa Monica turned the table around.
A 13-minute stretch between the 73rd and 86th minute, Ortega found a groove and completed a hat trick for the Corsairs who wound up shutting out the Renegades, 4-0.
Over this three-game stretch against three of the conference’s best, the Renegades (5-4-3, before Tuesday’s match) have allowed 15 goals while only accounting for two, but the team is ready to move beyond that and prepare for these next couple games at home.
“We haven’t been at home much so the girls are looking forward for the support coming up,” Dameron said.
BC has two more home games coming up vs. Glendale College on Oct. 24 and West LA on Oct. 28.