By
Rob Goodrow
October 26, 2019
(EL CAJON, Calif.) The #9 Westmont Women's Soccer team (11-2-1, 5-1) struck for four goals in the second half to defeat San Diego Christian (5-11, 2-5) on Saturday. The victory on the road propels the Warriors into a four-way tie for the conference lead, with each team holding a 5-1 record and 15 points.
It was a frustrating start for the Westmont offense in the first half. They outshot the Hawks 6-1 and went into the break with nothing to show for the effort.
"We had so many goal scoring opportunities in the first half and just couldn't find a way to put the ball in the back of the net," admitted Westmont Head Coach
Jenny Jaggard. "We were maybe too casual. They gave us so much space that we thought we had more time than we did and just played a little bit with a lack of urgency."
The Warriors adjusted their pace at half time and it paid off in the 52nd minute when forward
Isabelle Berthoud blasted home goal number one.
"We came out in the second half and tried to play a little bit quicker," explained Jaggard. "It was about picking up the exchange from back to middle. That first goal by Izzy, she absolutely ripped a shot from about 30 yards. It was an unbelievable shot and the offense just started rolling from there."
The host Hawks responded quickly themselves, scoring a goal less than five minutes later.
It would settle into a deadlock for the next eight minutes before Westmont broke the tie on a crossing play they had been practicing earlier in the week.
"
Maddi Berthoud hit a beautiful ball back post to
Grace Duckens who was in the perfect spot to put it away," said Jaggard. "We'd been working on crosses this past week in practice and it's always exciting to see the training pay off in a game setting like it did today."
Less than five minutes later, the Warriors scored goal number three off of a corner kick re-directed into the net by freshman defender
Taylie Scott. It was career goal number one for Scott.
Junior
Bri Johnson pushed her team-leading goal count to ten in the 81st minute off a free kick opportunity that turned weird.
"Bri took the free kick and the ball hit the wall but rebounded right back to her," described Jaggard."So before anyone reacted, she wound up and kicked it again and this time it went in. It was just one of those weird bounces and it gave us a second chance at it."
The Hawks capped the combined six-goal second half by adding the final score in the 84th minute by Veronica Romero.
"Both of their goals were off of our give-aways," explained Jaggard. "They capitalized on our not controlling well enough on our end. We were down a senior back today and we were just a bit too slack.
"At the same time, I thought our goalkeeper
Gabi Haw did a good job being vocal today and that really helped organize us on defense. Overall, we moved the ball better in the second half and that was the difference."
The Warriors return home for a Halloween game against OUAZ of Arizona, one of the conference opponents locked into the four-way first place position with Westmont. Kick-off is at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Thorrington Field.
