White gets third hat trick; Vaqueros clinch third straight WSC crown

Mekaylla White recorded her third hat trick of the season on Tuesday night and SBCC clinched its third straight WSC North title with a 6-0 rout of Oxnard at La Playa Stadium.

"It feels really good to win the conference," said White, a freshman forward from Folsom. "Everyone's super excited. We just want to go into playoffs and play as a team and do super well. We've come a long way this year and I know we can do it."

The Vaqueros are 7-0-2 in their last nine games. They improved to 11-6-3 overall and 8-1-2 in conference, where they've outscored their opponents 35-9.

Santa Barbara has 26 points and Cuesta (7-3-2) has 25 points with no games remaining. Ventura (6-4-1) is third with 19 points.

The Cougars blanked Ventura 2-0 on Tuesday afternoon, giving the Vaqueros their third straight WSC crown before the Oxnard game even started. SBCC is a glittering 25-1-3 in the last three years of WSC play.

Oxnard (0-20-1, 0-11-0) only had 11 players for Tuesday's game.

The Vaqueros dominated the possession, taking 17 shots in each half. They outshot the Condors 34-4, including 21-4 in shots on goal. Oxnard goalie Jadelyn Villasenor made a couple of diving saves in the second half and had 15 saves for the game.

White got the Vaqueros going by scoring in the 10th and 39th minutes. Sean O'Brien set up the first goal with a short cross to a wide-open White just 2 yards from the goal. Her second goal was a 21-yard left-footed blast into the left side.

"I took the second one from pretty far out," said White. "I was able to beat a few players and kick it with my left foot and hit the left corner."

White leads the WSC North with 12 goals in nine games and O'Brien is second with six goals.

White said the team was aware it had clinched the WSC title before the game.

"John (Sisterson) didn't tell us we won the title but he did say our last game against Ventura (which the Vaqueros won 2-1) was really for the league title," said White.

Monica Pizano cashed in her fourth goal of the year at 42:20, taking a pass from White and beating the keeper to give the Vaqueros a 3-0 lead at halftime.

Lourdes Marin-Rodriguez had a nice give-and-go with Molly Branigan, then scored into the right side for a 4-0 lead in the 58th minute.

White got her hat trick at 73:40, taking a pass from Taylor Valle and scoring in the left corner. Olivia Berntsson crossed a ball at 86:50 and Alejandra Alvarez, a sophomore from Carpinteria High, drilled it into the net to make it 6-0.

Elizabeth Estrada made four saves to notch her fifth shutout.

"I thought we played very well," said Sisterson. "You have to motivate yourselves against a team like this and treat them with respect. It's a funny old game and you never know what can happen.

"Mekaylla is a very god player, we want her to score goals and be strong and be the point person and that's what she's been doing. She's starting to play really well."

Sisterson was pleased to see his team win a third straight conference title and said they've come a long way from their 1-4 start. Three of the losses were by a total of four goals to teams ranked in the Top 13 in the state (No. 7 Sierra, No. 11 Chaffey and No. 13 Citrus).

"I'm so happy for the girls," said Sisterson. "It's all about them. I'm so proud of them. We started out a little rough, losing four early games, but I knew we were better than that. I always had faith in them.

"We had a new squad and I just felt it was a matter of time before we got it right. This is a little similar to the girls three years when we were seeded 14th and went all the way to the Final 4. This team could do the same."

The Vaqueros will wrap up the regular season on Friday when Moorpark comes to La Playa for a 1 p.m. WSC contest.