The Cosumnes River College women’s soccer team suffered a loss at home on Oct. 11 against the number one ranked team in the state and Big 8 rival, Santa Rosa.

The Bear Cubs began the game with an evident focus on putting pressure on the defense and scoring.

With the ball in the Cubs’ possession, they looked to score and had their first look at the net in the third minute of the game.

However, CRC freshman goalkeeper Claudia Lara made a quick save, diving to the pitch to secure the ball but, was hurt on the play.

The athletic trainer and his assistant rushed over to Lara but soon after being evaluated, she was able to get up under her own power and continued to play.

Santa Rosa kept pounding at the Hawks’ defense until sophomore forward Cara Curtin was able to score with 26 minutes left in the first half.

“We’ve been doing well but we wanted to work on attacking in the first 15 minutes and it seemed to work,” Curtin said.

With the score 1-0, the Hawks looked to shift the momentum and put pressure on the Cubs’ defense but the Cubs were able to hold off the Hawk’s offensive push.

With the ball moved to the opposite side of the field, Santa Rosa looked to bolster their lead, but the Hawks’ defense kept up and made efforts to clear the ball from their side of the field.

However, Santa Rosa remained relentless, constantly pushing the ball up the field with quick legs.

Curtin was able to score again and gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead with two minutes remaining in the first half.

The wet and muddy pitch began to play a significant factor in the second half. But the Santa Rosa women came out aggressive and within the first minute had another opportunity to score.

During the fourth minute of the second half, the Cubs’ persistence paid off. Freshman goalkeeper Ashley Luis subbed in as a forward and scored a goal to put the Cubs ahead 3-0.

After Luis’ goal the Hawks’ looked to push hard with freshman midfielder Jordan Moore covered in mud and leading the effort.

However, the ball would not get into the back of the net for the Hawks and Santa Rosa capitalized. Freshman forward Kareli Rodriguez scored the team’s fourth goal with 23 minutes remaining in the game.

For the remainder of the time the Cubs would keep pushing, not letting the Hawks get many chances to score.

Head coach Cesar Plasencia was disappointed with his team’s performance.

“There were a lot of breakdowns in defense,” Plasencia said. “We played horribly.”

Lara agreed that defense played poorly.

“We need to work on getting up the field and clearing the ball,” Lara said.

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