Orange Coast College

Women's Soccer: Pirates fit to be tied

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

COSTA MESA -- It was another dominating performance by the Orange Coast College women's soccer team -- in every stat OTHER than goals scored.

Leading 2-0, a pair of late goals by Palomar -- including one in the game's final seconds -- left the Pirates rather deflated with a 2-2 tie on Wednesday at the OCC Soccer Complex.

The Pirates outshot the Comets 18-4 and kept play near Palomar's goal area for most of the contest, but could not deliver the knockout blow down the stretch.

"We played very good soccer, all the way up to the end, but we let it slip away," OCC head coach Kevin Smith said. "We really need to do a better job of finishing. We should have scored five or six goals today."

It looked like smooth sailing for the Pirates (1-1-1) early on as they jumped out to a 2-0 first-half lead. In the 26th minute, Kaleigh Trider scored her third goal of the season off a pass from Julia Borkenhagen. The pass went through a gaggle of players onto Trider's foot and the freshman found the back of the net.

Just nine minutes later, Borkenhagen was again in a giving mood as she sent a beautiful cross-pass to sophomore Beth Krikorian, who ricocheted the ball into the upper-right corner for a 2-0 OCC advantage.

The Pirates held the Comets (0-0-2) without a shot for the entire first half and just four shots for the game.

However, in the 78th minute a Pirate player touched the ball with her hand inside Comets' scoring box, giving Palomar a penalty shot. Sophomore Amber Johnson ripped the PK into the upper-right corner and OCC goalkeeper Caitlin Schott guess right and got her fingers on the ball. But the shot had too much steam behind it and ended up in the back of the net, cutting the lead to 2-1.

The goal gave the Comets some extra life and, with time running out, back-to-back corner kicks were awarded to the visitors. The first attempt was kicked away by an OCC defender, but the second try, off the foot of Kerri Bryant, was missed by a pair of OCC defenders and buried into the net by Stephanie Dickinson.

Seconds later, the whistle blew and the game was over.

The Pirates will compete in the Ventura Tournament on Thursday before returning home to face Mt. San Antonio on Tuesday at 4 p.m.