East LA Shows Growth in Battling Long Beach City in Tough Loss

by Cerwin D Haynes

(thumbnail courtesy of shotwithav)

A win is a win, and a loss is a loss. That's the bottom line of team sports.

But context is also important in team sports. For a program like East LA College women's soccer - who was outscored last year by the tone of 61-3 - showing competitive spirit instead of being blown out of every match provides a lot of context in terms of team improvement, even in a loss.

Today's visitors to Weingart, Long Beach City College, came into the match ranked #3 in the state. Fears of a repeat of last year's result - a 9-0 Huskies loss to the Vikings - were warranted. But the home Green were ready to stand up to their powerful visitors: ELAC didn't get the win, but they did limit LBCC to one goal in a 1-0 loss.

If time of possession were a 3C2A soccer stat, it would show Long Beach CC dominating the amount of time spent on ELAC's half of the field. But thanks to timely defensive efforts and an outstanding goalminding effort by frosh Camila Cano (seven saves in eight SOGs), the Pack kept Long Bach from repeating anything close to last year's result.

East LA head coach Ramon Rivas found a good deal of satisfaction in his team's effort. "No moral victories," he replied after the game. "But we made them work for it. They thought they were gonna have it easy."

HUSKY BITS

• Cano, who usually starts at forward for the Huskies, was tasked to step in front of the net for starting GK Jacqueline Camarena who was unavailable due to injury.

UP NEXT:

The Pack are back on the road, but a short trip up to Pasadena City College this Friday to take on the Lancers at 6:30pm.