The LBCC Vikings dismantled the East Los Angeles College Huskies in a crushing 7-0 victory.
The Vikings were recently announced as the 12th ranked team in the nation by the United Soccer Coaches poll and proved their ranking with a masterful performance against ELAC to kickoff the conference season.
Early pressure from the Vikings created multiple chances to score a goal, but there was nothing to show for those chances until the 12 minute when standout freshman forward Genesis Lopez leaned back and finessed a shot from just outside the 18-yard box into the top-left corner to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.
After the first goal it was evident that the Vikings were outpacing the Huskies and that the Vikings’ aggressive approach to the game was going to be a major problem for their opponents.
This proved to be true within the 20 minute when masterful passing from the Vikings and pure speed from freshman forward Diana Leon led to a one-on-one opportunity where she beat the goalie with a tidy finish into the bottom left corner to give the Vikings a 2-0 lead.
The final goal of the first half came in the 32 minute when freshman midfielder Scarlett Ortiz fearlessly loaded up from over 30 yards out and floated a shot over the outstretched arm of the Huskies keeper into the top-right corner.
The Vikings came out of the half continuing to impose their will on ELAC with two second chance opportunity goals scored by Leon and Lopez in back-to-back minutes resulting in a 5-0 Vikings lead.
“It’s a team effort, but it felt really good scoring two goals,” said Lopez when being asked how it felt to get her season off to such a good start statistically.
The ELAC keeper was injured on the first goal of the second half and had to be carted off, so the Huskies had an outfield player in goal for the rest of the game. True goalie or not, there was no stopping the next Vikings goal from freshman forward Camryn Camacho who struck the ball from just outside the 18-yard box onto the crossbar resulting in it bouncing straight down over the line giving the Vikings a 6-0 lead.
Freshman forward Cora Craig sealed this outstanding performance from the Vikings with a great run in behind the defense freeing her and creating a one-on-one opportunity with the keeper to comfortably put the ball into the net, making the score 7-0 in favor of the Vikings, which would end up being the final score.
The Vikings have a tough opponent in Cerritos College on Friday and Head Coach Eduardo Nunes said that ELAC and Cerritos have a “very similar strategy and defense,” so this game against ELAC was a good “tune up” in order to be prepared for Friday.
This win against ELAC gave the Vikings a 1-0-0 record in the conference season.