The Rio Hondo Women’s Soccer team (2-0-2) earned their first shutout win at home this season, winning 6-0 in a non-conference game against the Lady Hornets from Fullerton College.

Coming into the game, the Lady Roadrunners had a 1-0-2 record with their first two games coming in the Nike Soccer Community College Soccer Showcase at Ventura College, facing Moorpark College and Fresno City College, tying 0-0 and winning 1-0, respectively.

The Women’s next game was their home opener against Orange Coast College on Sep 7 and finished with the score tied 2-2.  The Women’s Soccer Head Coach, Jennifer Tanaka, said after the game that the team “didn’t play a solid game for 90 minutes,” after the team gave up an early goal and had to come back to tie the game.

“It’s early in the season, so [they] are still learning what it takes to compete weekly at this level,” said head coach Tanaka and “the fact that [the team] battled back is something we can take from the game and use that moving forward.”

Prior to the game, Tanaka said her team needed to be focused from the first whistle through the full 90 minutes, “most games are won or lost from the little things” and needed to continue to “keep working to get better at executing the little things.”

The team heeded their coach’s message, delivering two goals within the first 6:30 of the game with Samantha Garcia putting one in from the left side of the goal and Erika Lizarraga scoring from the right side to give Rio Hondo a 2-0 edge early in the game.

The first half was dominated by Rio both offensively and defensively, controlling the time of possession and led 4-0 by halftime after Daisy Gallegos and Garcia scored again before the half ended with both goals assisted by Viviana Viramontes.

The Lady Roadrunners added on to their score, with Viramontes scoring from far left and Garcia scoring easily, giving her a hat trick for the game and basically shutting down any chances Fullerton College had with a 6-0 win.

Coming off a season where a win separated them from being the California Community College Athletic Association State Champions, the team is still highly motivated to do the same with Coach Tanaka saying that the coaches always look at each season with the same approach, “to get better in each game as a team and to have fun doing it” and “If [they] do all the work, [they’ll] have a great season.”

The women’s soccer team had a solid start playing two teams they faced off with in last year’s Regional Playoffs (Moorpark and Orange Coast) and a win over #3 nationally ranked Fresno City College last week. “With this excellent competition came the opportunities for us to learn more about ourselves, to refine what is working and to make adjustments on areas we would like to improve,” said Tanaka.

The women’s soccer team will have to be on the road for the next three games, playing Ventura College on Sep 13, Santa Monica College on Sep 23, East Los Angeles College on Sep 30 and won’t be back home until Oct 4 when they play Pasadena City College.