Orange Coast College

Women's soccer blanks Riverside

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

COSTA MESA - Much like their first meeting with Riverside, the Orange Coast College women's soccer team controlled the game from the opening whistle.
But this time, the Pirates won, defeating the visiting Tigers 2-0 on Tuesday, giving their playoff hopes a nice shot in the arm.
Despite a similar dominating performance earlier in the year, the Pirates fell at Riverside 1-0 back on Oct. 6.

"It was just a nice, solid all-around game for us," OCC head coach Kevin Smith said. "We came out strong and played well in just about all areas of the game."
Perhaps the biggest save of the game for Pirate goalkeeper Katie Johnson was her first when she made a diving, fingertip save on a dangerous Tiger shot in the game's opening minutes.
"That was huge for us," Smith said of Johnson's save. "If they get that early on, they (the Tigers) may drop everybody back, making it extremely tough to score."
OCC (12-7-1, 9-5-1 in conference) jumped to a 1-0 lead in the game's 19th minute when Nicole Huff sent a nice lead pass to forward Allie Nelson (pictured left), who slipped a shot past diving goalkeeper Raegan Finnie and into the lower-right corner of the goal.
The lead doubled in the 57th minute when Nelson drove down the right side, then passed to Stacey Shoop, who beat Finnie with a shot into the upper-left corner.
Finnie was busy all afternoon for the Tigers (13-8-1, 9-5-1), finishing with 13 saves. Johnson earned the shutout win with eight saves.
OCC will wrap up the regular season at Golden West on Friday, beginning at 6 p.m.