Women’s soccer kicked off its season Sept. 5 with a win, as the Broncos defeated Point Loma Nazarene University 2-0 in San Diego.
The Broncos shot a total of 13 shots in the entire match, seven of which were on target.
Senior midfielder/forward Amanda Duran and senior forward Ambria Pogue were keys to the Broncos’ success, as they each scored one goal.
As soon as the referee blew the whistle, the Broncos attacked and showed their hunger to win with shots on the Sea Lions’ goal.
Minutes later, their efforts were rewarded as Duran got the Broncos on the board.
“I believe I did OK overall. I think everyone showed a lot of composure and everyone played great,” Duran said.
(Courtesy of CPP Athletics Department)
“The goal, I feel, was key for me and gave me more confidence to lead my team to keep on going in the match. I think it’s really important to start the season with a goal. It helps me push not only myself but others as well to start scoring.And ultimately, it helps build my confidence to continue scoring and push other people.”
After scoring, the Broncos showed their experience and grit as they fought hard early in the second half when the Sea Lions attempted to make a comeback. Sophomore goalkeeper Sydney Williams chipped in with a pair of saves.
“One of our goals before the game was to make sure we defend and attack as a complete unit,” head coach Jay Mason said. “And today I thought the girls supported each other well, worked extremely hard to make it difficult for Point Loma, who is one of the better teams in the region.
“Today I was extremely proud of our back line and the complete group worked their tails off to defend and [I’m] obviously happy for Sydney to start the season with a clean sheet,” Mason said. “I think it’s important for teams to find confidence for when they can weather the storm in moments of the game because there are tons of momentum shifts that happened and they didn’t panic.”
As the match was coming to an end, Pogue sealed the Broncos’ first win with her first goal of the season on an assist by junior midfielder Jessica Llamas.
“I think I did all right tonight. Towards the end of the game, when we needed a goal, I put it in. So that was good,” Pogue said. “Overall, I think the team worked really hard and getting the result was a great confidence booster going into the rest of the season.”
On Saturday afternoon, the Broncos visited the Concordia-Irvine Eagles but came up short as they suffered their first loss of the season, falling 1-0.
The Broncos had five shots total in the game, three of which were on goal.
For the first 45 minutes, both teams failed to get on the scoreboard with four shots each.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, the host Eagles scored the only goal of the match by Jadenn Carrillo.
The Broncos only had one shot in the entire second half after Pogue took a shot in the 65th minute, but it was unfortunate as it went wide of the goal.
The Eagles were on target and had an efficient day shooting a total of 10 shots, seven of which were on goal. The Broncos, on the other hand, struggled as they went 5-3.
After being away for the first two games, the Broncos will return home to Kellogg Stadium and face the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs’ Mountain Lions at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 13.
