Putting up a fight from the beginning against L.A. Trade Tech, the competition last Wednesday was a brutal battle from the first period.

“L.A. Trade Tech was counter attacking us multiple times throughout the beginning of the game,” Tanner Castro, goalie, said. “At that point, I was getting kind of nervous and just knew that we had to pump up our plays.”

Coach Corey Stanbury said that it took the Warriors a few minutes to get on board, but they finished the first quarter up by one point.

“El Camino worked really hard in the second, but L.A. Trade Tech stayed in the game with a half dozen extra man-power plays that they capitalized on every attempt,” Stanbury added.

Castro saved four shots from L.A. Trade Tech. Though a small number, each save was at a crucial moment in the game giving the Warriors the lead.

“A one-on-no-one defense is like death to the goalie, when you save one of those it gets your team pumped up and it gets your team ready to throw it back in their face,” Castro said.

During halftime, the Warriors led the game only to have L.A. Trade Tech steal the lead in the third quarter.

“We lost our momentum halfway through, which was when L.A. Trade Tech took it and we couldn’t connect on a couple plays,” Skyler Ulrich, utility, said.

In the last quarter, EC controlled the game, Adam Rudow, utility position, scored two of his three goals.

The Warriors defense also performed well in the fourth quarter.

“There was a lot of pressure but we work better under pressure, it felt good to get those goals in because that was when we really needed it the most,” Rudow said.

“The first time we beat them we were really pressing the counter attack, which is what we weren’t doing in the first three quarters of this game,” Rudow added.

“We really cleaned up our plays in the final quarter.”

Coach Stanbury said that he felt that the relentless Warrior counter attack finally wore down L.A. Trade Tech.

The Warriors outscored L.A. Trade Tech, 5-2, in the final quarter to secure the win and fourth place seed into the next Conference Championships.

“Going into the championships, we are going to focus on what we did during the last two games, counter attacks and setting up to get our half court going and get our speed up,” Ulrich added.

The Warriors won 14-12.

“In the upcoming final games, if we can utilize our swimming ability to wing out and get ready for that counter attack pass,” Castro said.

“If I’m able to get that pass out there we can really rush their defense and mess them up.”

The Warriors will be participating in the South Coast Conference Championships Friday and Saturday at Rio Hondo College.