The Rio Hondo women’s soccer team faced College of the Desert for their last conference match of the season on Nov. 11 at Smith Park. The Lady Roadrunners won the game comfortably with the score ending at 4-0 and they are now advancing to the Southern California State Regionals as they await their opponent who is TBA. The Rio Hondo women’s soccer game is set to be played on Nov. 24 at 2:00 PM.

The Rio Hondo women’s soccer team ended the conference with a record of 5-1-2 and placed 2nd behind San Berardino. Overall they have a record of 13-1-4.

This was the last conference match game for a few players who will be going on to transfer to four year universities and continue to play soccer there as their time at Rio Hondo is coming to an end, after yet another succesful season lead by head Coach Jennifer Tanaka who won the Foothill Conference in 2014. Since 2013 one hundred percent of Tanaka’s sophomores have also gone on to transfer to four year universities and play soccer there which is a very rewarding turnout.

The Lady Roadrunners were first to kick off and Andrea Sanchez wasted no time as she went straight to goal and scored within ten seconds of the start of the game. Things were already starting to look great for Rio Hondo as the game started off in their favor early on. You could see just how motivated and excited these ladies were to play.

The Lady Roadrunners continued to dominate the start of the match as they were passing the ball around to one another as they showed no mercy with their attack. Janeth Acuna was next to get on the scoreboard after a great cross came in from Sanchez. Rio Hondo was now up 2-0 in the first fifteen minutes of the game, and they showed absolutely no signs of slowing down.

The game went into half time with Rio Hondo holding a comfortable lead of 2-0 as Desert was doing everything that they could to try and slow down our Lady Roadrunners.

As the second half commensed Rio Hondo continued to show their dominance on the field as they were controlling the tempo of the game and forcing College of the Desert players to chase. It didn’t take long for Rio to get another goal in, as Destiny Garcia assisted Sabrina Gonzalez after a great link up to make it 3-0.

The Lady Roadrunners were enjoying this game as everyone was getting a piece of the action, they all touched the ball around beautifully from one side to the other. As the game progressed and Rio Hondo continued to dominate possesion of the ball, goalkeeper Christina Holguin was able to get some minutes on the field. She played up top and was able to complete multiple passes and put pressure on College of the Desert’s defense.

Even going late into the end of the game, Rio Hondo continued to attack as they tried to get in another goal, and surely enough they managed to get another one in. After some beautiful passes and a cross into the box from Erika Lizarraga to Andrea Sanchez, she beat both College of the Desert defenders and managed to get a shot past the keeper as she was going down. It was now 4-0 and the game the continued to be dominated by Rio Hondo until the final whistle was blown.

The Rio Hondo women’s soccer team now have an overall record of 13-1-4 and have scored a total of  42 goals so far this season as they ended it in great shape. They will now await their next game on Nov. 19  Southern California Regionals.