The Long Beach City College women’s soccer team got off to a slow start Friday afternoon in a 2-1 loss to the Cerritos Falcons at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
After the loss, the Vikings fell to 10-5 and 2-2 in the South Coast Conference.
The game started off sluggish as no team got on the board for about 10 minutes until Falcon forward Briana Flores scored the first goal of the game in the 14th minute taking the 1-0 lead.
Just 22 minutes after the first score, the Falcons scored once again in the 36th minute taking a 2-0 lead in the first half.
Head Coach Eduardo Nunes acknowledged the team’s weakness in starting off not focused. “I would grade our performance a B, just because our first half, it’s something that’s hard for us throughout the year we just come out too hesitant and not as confident as we should and it costs us, and we’re having to come back and do extra.”
The Vikings got off more shots than the Falcons getting 12 shots off to Cerritos, but they still struggled to score a goal, as they didn’t get on the board until the 59th minute of the game.
Forward Melissa Monjaraz put the Vikings on the board with a free kick to bring the game closer 2-1.
“I feel like we didn’t get a hang of it until the second half. Even playing ELAC we had the same problem, going in the first half not in the right mindstate, but we pick it up in the second half and kind of have to catch up,” forward Allison Rose Veloz had to say after the game.
The Vikings put themselves in a hole early in the game and were just trying to get themselves out of it most of the second half.
“The first half was a bit rusty, we came out there with a poor attitude, but we stepped it up a lot in the second half after we brought the team together,” defender Cassandra Hodge added.
The Vikings will next go on the road to face Pasadena on Monday at 3pm.