Salas, Marin-Rodriguez get first goals in 2-0 shutout

A pair of high school teammates collected their first goals on Thursday night, leading SBCC to a 2-0 women's soccer victory over L.A. Pierce.

Jessica Salas and Lourdes Marin-Rodriguez tallied second-half goals in the 52nd and 66th minutes, respectively. They're both sophomores who played together at Woodland High near Sacramento.

The Vaqueros (6-6-1, 3-1 WSC North) dominated the possession, outshooting the Brahmas 14-2 in the first half and 21-4 for the game. Pierce fell to 6-8 and 2-3.

Molly Branigan had a free kick from the right side of the box at 51:25 and sent a ball across the face of the goal. Salas headed it into the left side and then had to weather an offsides call by the linesman. He was overruled by the referee, who noted that the offsides player was not involved in the play.

"They committed a foul outside the 18 and our coach put Molly on the ball," said Salas, a 5-7 defender. "We cheated out of the corner and I went right behind Elin (Hedstroem) thinking if she gets it, great. If she doesn't get it, then I'm right behind her. I saw it coming straight to me and I just put my head on it and it went in.

"We were a little frustrated because we had most of the possession and we were getting a lot of shots on-target. We knew if we kept doing that, one would go in at some point."

The Vaqueros posted their second straight shutout and second in three days.

Marin-Rodriguez popped up a high ball from 34 yards out at 65:24. The ball kept carrying and went over the head of the keeper Joanna Cerda and into the goal for a 2-0 lead.

"I wasn't trying to score, I was just trying to cross it in," said Marin-Rodriguez, a sophomore midfielder who's one of four players to start all 13 games. "I kicked it up high and I felt like the wind got a hold of it. I saw the goalie backtracking and I thought, 'Is that going to go in?' "

The Brahmas had just one shot on-goal and it didn't come until the 84th minute.

"The girls were a little frustrated when it was 0-0 at halftime but we told them to keep playing and the goals would come," said SBCC coach John Sisterson. "We kept a clean sheet and got the three points.

"We're starting to move in the right direction now. Hopefully, we've found our identity and move on and get another win tomorrow."

The Vaqueros are playing three games in four days this week with Thursday's game a makeup of last Friday's clash that was postponed because L.A. Pierce had closed its school due to the Saddleridge Fire and the team couldn't get up here.

SBCC will play the next three WSC games on the road, starting on Friday at Oxnard at 4 p.m.