Orange Coast College

Women's soccer edges Santa Monica in overtime

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

SANTA MONICA - The two teams had "scoreless overtime" written all over them heading into Tuesday's second-round playoff match and the two teams lived up to the bill.
But Kaitlyn Schuesler's goal in the 11th minute of overtime proved to be enough for the visiting Orange Coast College women's soccer team as it pulled off a 1-0 OT win against host Santa Monica.
With two solid defensive squads going at it, Pirates head coach Kevin Smith knew that scoring opportunities would be hard to find.
"The low-scoring result was how I figured it would turn out," Smith said. "It was a tough field to play on -- very chopped up and with the dew, it was getting wetter and wetter by the minute out there."
Finally, with four minutes left in the first 15-minute overtime, Schuesler took a pass from Melissa Weisz and cut inside her defender near the top of the 18-yard box. From there, she ripped a shot over the outstretched arms of the Corsair goalkeeper and into the back of the net.
"She hit the shot early, I thought," Smith said. "After she cut inside, I thought she was going to take another dribble or two, but she took a great shot and it carried over their goalkeeper."
Following that goal, Santa Monica put a big-time scare into the Pirates in the second overtime, but a high-quality Corsair shot rang off the goalpost in the game's final minutes and OCC hung on the rest of the way.
OCC goalkeeper Katie Johnson had four saves -- her biggest coming early in the match as she batted a well-placed, high shot just over the crossbar, keeping the game scoreless.
"That was really their (Santa Monica's) best scoring opportunity," Smith said. "Our defense was strong and we controlled things for most of the game. Katie, Diana (Johnson) and Nicole (Huff) were all played great games for us."
The quality of opponent will take a severe jolt northward as the Pirates travel to Cypress to take on the top-seeded Chargers on Dec. 2, beginning at 2 p.m. Three of the remaining final four teams from the South Region (Cypress, OCC, Santiago Canyon) reside in the Orange Empire Conference.