The Cosumnes River College women’s soccer team won 2-1 over the Evergreen Valley College on Friday.

It was a struggle in the first half for the CRC Hawks. Both teams went back and forth in their possession of the ball as the Evergreen Valley College Hawks took possession at various moments, but CRC had the ball in their favor for the majority of the first half.

Despite being short a few players due to injuries, freshman outside back Allie Smith said the team gave it their all.

“I feel really good about it because we’ve had issues in the past where we’ve given up a little bit, not stayed in the game or were tied when we have one-up victory,” Smith said. “So it’s good that we stayed in the game and kept fighting until the end.”

For the majority of the first half the score was 0-0 until the CRC Hawks scored their first goal, but the EVC Hawks managed to tie the game 1-1 by the end of the first half.

The struggle continued in the second half. A penalty occurred with sophomore attack midfielder Analise Villaseñor when she slipped after colliding with one of Evergreen Valley’s players. As a result, Villaseñor had broken the tie when she scored a goal via a penalty kick, giving CRC the lead 2-1.

Villaseñor was enthusiastic about scoring that penalty kick because she said she “had not scored in a while.” Despite scoring that goal, she said she had not practiced those kinds of kicks recently, but every time the team does penalty kicks during practice, she said she “always knows her side and which way to go.”

Although CRC won the match, head coach Cesar Plasencia said he felt that the CRC Hawks made a mistake on a goal attempt with their defensive set, but otherwise “fought hard and played well.”

“We had to grind it out, I thought Evergreen did a little better than we did, but we battled and stayed in it,” Plasencia said.