Sydney Brouwer scored four goals for the Vikings in their 15-5 home game win against the Cerritos Falcons on Wednesday afternoon which was highlighted by defensive pressure from the Vikings that resulted in seven steals for Daphne Wilder.
The Vikings set the tone for the game immediately by scoring five points in the opening five minutes of the game with Brouwer scoring two goals and Kaya Barret scoring two of her three goals in this short span, followed up by Carlotta Zandali making the fifth goal.
LBCC scored more in the first period than in any of the other periods and gave up points throughout the rest of the game. The first period ended 5-0 and gave the Vikings a firm advantage for the rest of the game.
The game was characterized by an aggressive Vikings’ defense led by Zendali and Wilder that continually played in the Falcon’s faces, even if it meant fouling to force Cerritos back.
This strategy was employed to great effect for LBCC even though it resulted in five total ejections for the Vikings compared to one for the Falcons.
For most of the game the Vikings played a fast pace offense compared to the Falcons who tried to be more methodical, a strategy which didn’t work due to the Vikings’ highly aggressive defense.
During the second period there was an almost three minute window of high stakes aggression from both teams as there was a streak of goals from both teams.
In these three minutes the Vikings and Falcons both scored three goals, several of them made all within 40 seconds due to quick passes across the pool to open players who hurled the ball into the goal at high speeds each time.
While the Vikings allowed the Falcons to start scoring in the second period and only made three goals themselves, the second half saw the Vikings score seven goals throughout and hold the Falcons to only one.
The second half was much slower as both teams started showing fatigue and played more defensive. For the Vikings, many of the scores in the second half came from easy open shots rather than fast paced play.
By the time the game was over the Vikings came out on top with a 15-5 win, bringing their conference record to 5-0 and overall to 12-5.
Coach Chris Oeding seemed happy about the win as he reinforced points of improvement out of the pool to the team.
“We’ve been trying to apply more pressure, play more inside. We worked on our lanes and our awareness of the ball prior to it moving to the lane,” said Odeing when asked about the overall success of the team.
One player that rose to the occasion during the game was freshman Sharon Vargas.
“She’s been practicing a lot and the coach has really been encouraging her with starters out,” said Hailey Wadlington when asked about Vargas.
“We try to learn their movement and stop drives early,” said Wadlington when asked about their defensive approach.
Wadlington had six saves for the Vikings which kept much needed points for the Falcons off the board.
“One advantage of our defense is that if our offense just isn’t clicking that day for whatever reason it gives us some room to slack and still win,” said Odeing in response to the Vikings’ defensive style.
“It’s a super short season and we’ve got two weekends with eight games to improve and expose our weaknesses before the championships,” Odeing said before returning to his players.
The Vikings have a big set of games coming up before the conference championships in the form of the LBCC Mini Tournament this weekend.
The Vikings play Riverside and Concordia Friday at Long Beach City College at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. respectively, followed by two more games Saturday against West Valley and Orange Coast at 8 a.m and 3:30 p.m. respectively.
These games will be critical for the Vikings in standing and morale as the Vikings lost to each of these teams excluding Concordia earlier in the season.