With a bevy of returning starters, both Lakewood and Cabrillo are trying to build on strong finishes in the 2008-09 campaign. How do you do that? Start fast. And in Thursday’s Moore League opener, it was the Lancers imposing their will early as they held off the host Jaguars for a 4-1 victory.
Senior Kassidy Hause opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a line-drive shot into the netting after she beat two defenders from 35-yards out. Kendahl Fisher tallied the second Lakewood score in the 15th minute after a beautiful through ball from Noemy Polanco. Fisher’s first touch settled at the corner of the box and she waited for Cabrillo goalie Leslie Navarro to pick a side. The sophomore forward read Navarro, and banked it in off the far post for the 2-0 lead.
“We always talk about playing the first five and the last five minutes of each half,” said Lakewood head coach Scott Manson. “It was all about taking their confidence away early, and we’ve got the athletes to do that.”
Hause and Fisher each added one second-half goal for all the Lancer scoring, and Cabrillo coach Jorge Polanco called the two forwards, “the best tandem in the Moore League.” But that was after a scrappy Jaguar squad made it interesting.
WIth the score still 2-0 Lakewood in the 33rd minute, Cabrillo earned a free kick from just outside the Lancer box. Mabel Chacon put her shot directly on goal and Lakewood keeper Jen Carey met the ball at the crossbar to knock it down. But when she did, Jaguar forward Melina Ramos was there waiting for the rebound and she knocked it in.
Cabrillo celebrated the goal, only to turn around and see the referee with his hand in his air to indicate offsides. Polanco (and the local media) asked the refs for an explanation, and were told since it was a free kick and not a corner, that when the ball came to the ground Ramos was clearly offsides.
Some bystanders said the referee called Ramos offsides while the ball was in the air, and was just slow with the whistle. Others contest the referee misinterpreted the rule. (We’ll let you guess which sideline thought which)
The controversial call got even more controversial when Ramos actually did score in the 40th minute just seconds before the first half whistle blew.
“I mean, we need to play a lot better, and it’s the mental mistakes that killed us today, but that call really changed the game for us,” said Polanco. “If we’re 2-2 at half instead of 2-1, who knows? But it just didn’t happen that way for us.”
The debate was quickly put to rest when Fisher got her second goal on a counter attack in the first minute of the second half. Hause got her second score in the 70th minute. Despite great energy from Tania Cerda and Kimberly Luna, Cabrillo could only muster one shot on goal after Ramos’ goal.
Lakewood will host Compton on Thursday while Cabrillo travels to Millikan.