What a way to begin the playoffs for the Clovis Community College Crush women’s soccer team.
Saturday, the Crush put its season on the line against the Cañada Colts in the first round of the CCCAA Northern regional playoffs. It was the second meeting of the two teams as the Crush emerged 4-2 victors on Sept. 6.
And Clovis once again found itself on the winning side with a 2-1 win, but for a while it seemed as though it just wasn’t the Crush’s day.
The Crush dominated possession of the ball throughout the first half, generating numerous scoring chances, including in the second minute when a shot sailed inches over the crossbar.
A pattern emerged in which Clovis would push the ball wide on the counter-attack with runners streaking down the middle of the pitch, waiting for the right pass.
And the passes came and came, but not the results. Players were visibly frustrated, but not enough to get their spirits down
To make matters worse for Clovis, Cañada capitalized on one of its few chances in the first half when the Colts’ Sulma Plancarte broke away from the pack on a counter-attack and beat Crush goalie Angela Petrakis to put her team ahead in the 53rd minute.
But Crush coach Orlando Ramirez still felt that his team would get an equalizing goal.
“I think we created enough chances,” Ramirez said. “We had 30 minutes and I just had to keep the girls calm and continue to play the way we were playing. We couldn’t panic with that much time left.”
And that goal came in the 69th minute. Leslie Zepeda found a pocket of space in the middle of the Colts’ defense and slipped a shot into the net to level the game at one.
With the new-found momentum, the Crush capitalized.
Eleven minutes later, Amanda Avila found herself in the right spot at the right time, finding the ball at her feet point blank in front of the net. All it took was a tap home and the Crush had the lead that they had worked so hard for.
The Crush then sat back and played with a more defensive mentality, closing the game out to punch their ticket to the second round.
Clovis will face Sierra College in Rocklin on Tuesday in the second round.