By Celeste Walter

Strong approach (Celeste Walter)
By Celeste Walter
Fullerton College and Mother Nature proved to be a powerful combination in the first few minutes of the Oct. 14 soccer game.
In the end, their joint efforts were no match for the Riverside City College women’s soccer team who won the match 2-1.
A free kick awarded to the Hornets early in the game combined with high gusts of wind drove the ball down near the RCC goal post resulting in the first goal of the game held at Bobby Bonds Soccer Field.
RCC came out of the gate sluggish, though they quickly picked up the tempo and were soon firing on all pistons. Alana Wohlers slipped a goal past the opposing goalie to tie the score in the first half.
Though the Tigers were nursing numerous injuries, the team displayed sheer willpower in their repeated effort to drive the ball down to break the tie.
Their efforts were finally accomplished by, Alyssa Popov with a ball delivered by, Megan Fredrick.
The players’ combined effort denied any further attempts by the opposing team to score additional goals.
Coach Lynsey Jalayer said the numerous injuries caused the team to “change our formation from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2 just to accommodate the players on the bench that we were putting in.”
She said the early goal was the result of a free kick which she identified as one of the team’s weaknesses this year.
“The majority of our goals we have given up have been from outside the 18 and this is something we will definitely be working on this week especially since we have a bye Friday,” she said.
Jalayer said the possibilities of additional goals may have existed, though she noted the resiliency of the team in responding to the first goal.
“They got up and they got the goal back and we probably should have had a few more . . . we missed a few open netters and a few 1-b- 1’s with the goalie.”
The wind did play a part in the first half of the game going with the ball on the free kick, Jalayer said, “in today’s game we had the wind against us the first half and then it died down so the other team had the advantage the first half and we had no advantage.”
The team is presently 18th in the region, Jalayer said noting that the win would “help because this was a team that is above or right at 500, games, their winning percentage should boost our power points and boost us up a bit in the rankings.”
She added that it “was actually a very good game for us to win, they’ve done well. They beat Cypress this year 1-0.”
Freshman Megan Fredrick said she felt the team did well overall noting that “we definitely stepped it up in the second half. We did what we had to do to get the team’s goal.”
Fredrick said she was excited to “do what we have to do to finish this season,” noting that the team is moving into the second part of the conference she added “we’ll do what we have to do.”
Freshman Alana Wohlers said though she felt the team should have finished their chances she felt “we picked up the tempo in the second half a lot better.”
Wohlers said she predicted hard practice in the upcoming days due to the bye on Friday that she felt would prepare the team for their upcoming game with Saddleback. Her closing comment was simply, “I love this team.”