Fullerton women defeat El Camino in intense soccer matchup
Freshman forward Bella Baligad makes her way down the field during a game against Fullerton on Sept. 20. The Warriors were defeated by the Hornets 1-0, and will next play Golden West at home on Friday, Sept. 23. (William Renfroe | The Union)
Fullerton defeated El Camino 1-0, with the Hornets scoring the game-winning goal in the second half.
“Go Warriors!”
The crowd cheers after the National Anthem, as both teams huddle on opposite sides of the field.
“1…2…3… Hornets!”
“1…2…3… Warriors!”
The crowd erupts again, cheers from both sides screaming with anticipation as both teams line up to shake hands in the middle of the field. The soccer ball gets swept left and right as both teams brawl for a goal.
Fullerton midfielder Auburn Burnett scored the game-winning goal in the second-half of the game. Fullerton cheers and rallies erupted in a circle.
A scoreless first-half, both teams earned three foul points. El Camino goalkeeper Karlee Clark saved two scoring attempts from the Hornets. At halftime, both teams huddled to make a plan for their next move.
During the second-half of the game, things intensified as goalkeepers from the Warriors and Hornets saved multiple potential goals from each side. Both teams pushed balls out of line to keep each other from scoring a goal. The anticipation grew towards the end of the second-half.
Both sides traded multiple goal attempts throughout the game, but only one shot managed to escape the goalkeeper and go into the net.
“I thought it was a battle,” Fullerton’s coach, Pamela Lewin said. “I thought both teams came out to play.”
Lewin said they had a couple of more chances in front of their goal. The couple of shots they had weren’t very good scoring areas.
El Camino midfielder Tana Wynia said they weren’t reacting the way they should have, and did not anticipate a play. They were seeing their opponents move late in the game, they were watching a lot instead of being on the player.
The intensity of the game rattled the players as they started to see how little time they had left to recover.
“I think it didn’t go the way we intended it to go,” El Camino freshman forward Allison Sibley said. “We weren’t ready for them to press on us that hard.”
Sibley said there was intensity coming from both sides of the field, because there was plenty of shoving during the game.
“It’s not really our style of play,” Sibley said. “But, when it comes to a team doing it against us, we have to match up to it, no matter what.”
El Camino head coach Darin Dunn, spoke with the team during halftime to discuss what needed to be done in order to get the results they were hoping for.
“I think we just unfortunately didn’t put our chances away in the first half,” Dunn said. “It came to bite us in the second half.”
Dunn said next game, the team will be focusing on the intensity of which they are going to attack and defend.
“That’s something that will change.” Dunn said. “We will get better and correct that for the next game Friday.”
Warriors next game will be at home on Friday, Sept. 23 against Golden West.
Editor’s note: Story updated for role clarification and name correction on Oct. 4, 2022, at 2:58 p.m.
