Women's soccer picks up a hard-fought win

Santa Monica College improved their record to 2-1-1 winning a tough battle with Pasadena City College Tuesday, 1-0.

The game began with physical play from both teams. During the opening minutes, there was a takedown from PCC on SMC forward Tylor Fields but no call was made.

Fields was not very pleased; she voiced her opinion to the referee and quickly picked up a yellow card.

“That’s nothing new; that’s junior college soccer at its best,” said SMC head coach Aaron Benditson on the aggressive play. “What teams lack in technical ability, they will make up for in physicality. That is a glimpse of what is going to come this season.”

In the 33rd minute of the match, SMC defender Briana Mackey scored the first goal to put the Corsairs up 1-0 with the assist coming from teammate Yennifer Baca.

Right before halftime, goalkeeper Cindy Godina went down with an ankle injury.

Godina was able to finish out the first half, but ended up having to sit the second half of the game. She was replaced by freshman Monique Boe.

“Monique came in and did a fantastic job,” Benditson said. “It’s not easy to jump into a situation like that and perform the way she did.”

The second half saw the intensity rise. Midway through the half, PCC’s defender Heather French was handed a red card, disqualifying her from the contest and giving PCC one less player on the field.

PCC head coach Randy Lilavois was encouraged by his team’s response following the ejection.

“I was proud of the way our team played with the adversity of having one less player on the field the rest of the half,” said Lilavois. “We were still able to get good shots and played really hard out there."

Pasadena would not go down without a fight as they picked up their intensity with the game coming to an end. Shot after shot, they would come close multiple times but were not able to score due to the magnificent defense of Boe.

“You have to give their goalkeeper a lot of credit for the way she performed,” said Lilavois. “She came right in and started to make plays for them.”

“After Cindy [Godina] went down with her ankle, coach told me I was in. I just had to come and step up for the team,” said Boe.

The next women’s soccer game is at home Friday against San Bernardino at 3 p.m.