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Leopards victorious over Regals

La Verne midfielder Kelsea Varner pushes forward against Cal Lutheran’s defense before the end of the first half, after Regals junior midfielder Katie Moyer scored, 15 minutes into the game. The Leopards ultimately dethroned the Regals, 2-1, at the women’s soccer home opener Saturday at Ortmayer Stadium. / photo by Mariela Patron
La Verne midfielder Kelsea Varner pushes forward against Cal Lutheran’s defense before the end of the first half, after Regals junior midfielder Katie Moyer scored, 15 minutes into the game. The Leopards ultimately dethroned the Regals, 2-1, at the women’s soccer home opener Saturday at Ortmayer Stadium. / photo by Mariela Patron

Kat Simonelli
News Editor

The women’s soccer team won its first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Con­ference match of the season, 2-1, against Cal Lutheran Saturday at Ortmayer Stadium.

The game got off to what looked like a poor start for La Verne, after Cal Lutheran’s junior midfielder Katie Moyer, scored a goal on a free kick only 13 minutes into the game.

“I’m not sure what the call was so I was upset that there was a foul and a little disappointed because I got a hand on it but I couldn’t keep it out,” senior goalkeeper Delanie Pacheco said.

After that first goal, the first half went pretty slowly for the Leopards, as there were only three shots on goal, but once the second half started they kicked up the pace.

“We went down early, I thought we had possession of the ball for the most part in the game, but we went down early and at halftime we talked about how we don’t want people walking away easily on our field with wins,” head coach Lauryn Pehanich said.

“They came out and they scored two goals in the first five minutes of the half and they got it done.”

In the 48th minute, sophomore forward Alexa Smith shot the ball over Cal Lutheran’s sophomore goalkeeper Coral Hassey’s reach from about 30 yards out, on a pass from junior midfielder Kelsea Varner, scoring her first goal in SCIAC play.

Four minutes later, senior midfielder JJ Weaver headed the ball in off a free kick taken by senior forward Natalie Vasquez and scored her fourth goal of the season.

“Natalie had played a perfect ball in and I just jumped up and happened to get a head on it so it was good, it was a great ball in,” Weaver said.

While the team did walk away with a win, they still learned the importance of control and keeping their cool.

“We learned game control and how to control it when were down, that we need to get back up and score and when were up 2-1 we need to control the game and stay calm,” Smith said.

Pacheco walked away with six saves out of a total of seven shots on goal.

The team also faced the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Wednesday.

La Verne lost 2-1, putting them at a 1-2-0 record in the SCIAC tournament and 3-4-0 overall.

The Leopards got off to a good start, after freshman forward Jessica Hernandez headed in the first goal of the game in the 28th minute off a pass from Smith.

With two minutes left in the first half, Vasquez scored an own goal, after the ball took a bad bounce off her foot while she was trying to block a shot.

The winning goal went to CMS, after sophomore midfielder Emily Cassell headed a ball in past Pacheco on a corner kick from CMS senior forward Isabel Lester.

The women’s soccer team will take on Chapman at 7 p.m. Saturday at Holly and David Wilson Field.

Kat Simonelli can be reached at kathryn.simonelli@laverne.edu.

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