Posted: Oct 08, 2023
By Francisco Claudio
The Westcliff women's soccer team hosted the Soka University Lions on Saturday night at the OC Great Park.
It was a back-and-forth battle as both teams settled with a 2-2 draw after 90 minutes.
The Warriors were in better spirits coming into the game having earned their first win against a conference opponent the previous week.
Every game was crucial for the Warriors this late into the season and only wins could have helped them move up the standings.
The first goal came from Westcliff in the 38th minute after a pass from Isabella Saavedra found No. 17 Alberte Angersbach with lots of time to put it past the goalkeeper.
The first half finished with the Warriors up 1-0.
But Soka responded well to start the second half and in the 48th minute had even up the score 1-1.
In the 74th minute, the Warriors were given a golden opportunity after an unfortunate foul from the Lions in the penalty box.
No. 17 Angerbach stepped up to take the penalty and would be successful to put the Warriors up 2-1.
But again the Lions responded well to the adversity and in the 80th minute tied it up as the game would finish with a stalemate.
"Soka was impressive, they played good stuff and had a good style," head coach Jack Gidney said after the game. "Their play should deserve better results, they're a good team.
We had a nice little moment of magic once we organized a more structured press in the first half. During those last ten minutes of the first half, I thought we could have gotten a second goal to finish it off and it would totally change the shape of the game, but we didn't get it. Credit to Soka as they came out in the second half in a different shape that caused us real problems. Once we figured it out it became about hard work."
This season has been rough for the defending champs as they are looking from the outside of those qualifying into the Cal Pac Conference Tournament.
