Head coach of the women’s soccer team Ruben Gonzalez looked on to the pitch Sept. 30 as his team was defeated 1-0.
He gathered his players and made it clear to them he wanted a sure sign of dominance the next time the Falcons encountered the Huskies.
And that is exactly what his team accomplished Friday, Oct. 24, as the Falcons avenged the conference defeat 7-0.
An early goal rallied the spirits of the Falcons as the pressure was clear enough to see ELAC backing far into its territory to defend its net.
A hat trick from Esmeralda Verdugo, a doublet from Ashley Anaya-Webb, as well as Nayeli Requejo, were the conjurers of the shutout win.
With so many goals on the score board, Gonzalez was pleased to see that his team took his message to heart and executed his plan of dominance on the match.
“When we played (ELAC) at (its) place, it’s always tough to play on the road and we wanted to come in and make a statement,” he said.
According to Gonzalez, he was convinced his team out-skilled and capitalized on chances more in almost every game.
He said, “We scored an early goal and another right after that; it was 2-0 before the half. Halftime I just said ‘hey, we’re a little too complacent, we [have] to pick it up.'”
The first goal came from Verdugo after a free ball in the ELAC penalty box bounced freely toward her.
Her killer instinct kicked in as she found just the right amount of room to attack the ball and get the goal.
In the 38th minute, the Falcons were awarded a penalty kick.
Requejo placed the ball on the penalty spot and smoothly maneuvered the ball to glide past the keeper.
After the break, the Falcons continued the push into Husky territory to look for more scoring opportunities.
Sporadic counter attacks from ELAC filtered through the midfield and made its way toward the Falcon net.
However, defensive efforts and five saves from the keeper ultimately withheld all attacks, keeping a clean sheet, as well as a numerical score board for the Falcons.
Center back Makayla Mendoza was at the helm of the Falcon defense.
“[Gonzalez] had us get refocused and made sure everyone was on the same page, he wanted us to come back and convincingly win because it was kind of a fluke loss in the first game,” she said.
According to Mendoza, she was very pleased with the attacking efforts of her team.
Center midfielder Celinna Montano had almost every ball passed to her as she controlled the midfield for the Falcons.
“We wanted it more, obviously. (ELAC) beat us 1-0, so we had the mentality that we had to get (ELAC) back and we just attacked and attacked,” Montano said.
The Falcons’ next game is Tuesday, Oct. 28, at Long Beach City College at 4 p.m.
