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Lake Tahoe CC women’s soccer splits home matches with Sequoias, Sierra

Anthony Gentile
agentile@tahoedailytribune.com
Lake Tahoe winger Kendall Eagan plays a ball past Sierra forward Sarah Craig in the Coyotes’ 3-2 loss to the Wolverines at home on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Anthony Gentile / Tahoe Daily Tribune |

The Lake Tahoe Community College women’s soccer team faced a beatable opponent last Saturday, Sept. 12, and took advantage to get a result. The Coyotes beat visiting College of the Sequoias (Visalia, Calif.) 3-2, riding a pair of second half goals to victory.

“This is one of those confidence boosters — it shows us we belong, we can create chances and put the ball away,” LTCC head coach Jeremy Evans said. “If we clean up some of the things we need to in the back, we can now go get results against better teams.”

The match was level at 1-1 at halftime, and Lake Tahoe (2-2-1) struck twice early in the second half to take control. At the break, the Coyotes switched up their offensive approach against a Sequoias defense that sat deep.



“We had to change the tactics of how we were going to attack it,” Evans said. “It was all about sucking them out wide, getting [our forwards] out centrally and crossing it back in.”

In the 53rd minute, forward Shawa Escobedo-Guerrero converted a cross from midfielder Kendall Eagan to break the tie. Eight minutes later, Eagen finished a pass from Escobedo-Guerrero to make it 3-1.



“In preseason, they had a telepathy going on and connected so well,” Evans said of the freshman duo. “Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come, because those two are dangerous players in the attacking third.”

Sequoias (3-3) scored a late goal just before the final whistle, but it didn’t affect the outcome. For Lake Tahoe, the victory snapped a three-match winless streak.

“Our good stretches are happening for a longer duration now, and our bad stretches are for shorter durations,” Evans said. “We need to keep building on that.”

Four days later, the Coyotes fell to Sierra College (Rocklin, Calif.) 2-0 at home. After a scoreless first half, the Wolverines scored two goals in a three-minute stretch and kept LTCC off the board the rest of the way.

Lake Tahoe fell behind 1-0 in the 60th minute when a free kick led to a goal for Sierra forward Snowy Anderson. Three minutes later, a failed clearance left a shot for Wolverines midfielder Alyssa Rapsira that ended up in the upper corner of the net.

“I’m pretty happy with the result,” Evans said. “They deserved to win, but both goals were avoidable.”

Lake Tahoe had two chances in each half, with its best opportunity to score coming on a breakaway from midfielder Monique Rodriguez in the 73rd minute. A through ball sprung the midfielder into Sierra’s 18-yard box, but her shot was met with a sliding save from the Wolverines’ goalkeeper.

“We’re not transitioning quickly enough from defense to offense,” Evans said. “We’re defending well and then we forget that when we win the ball we have to go up, get on the ball and get in the right spots.”

The Coyotes return to action Friday, Sept. 18, at Cosumnes River College (Sacramento, Calif.) for the first of four straight road matches. The following day, Lake Tahoe concludes its non-conference slate against Santa Rosa Junior College (Calif.) at 1 p.m.

“We’ll know what we have going into conference play after this,” Evans said.


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