SMC Dominates College of the Canyons with 10-0 victory
The Santa Monica College Corsairs won 10-0 against College of the Canyons on Tuesday Oct. 13, after an offensive masterclass in both halves. After a close 1-0 win against the Renegades last Friday, the Corsairs responded with a blowout. resulting in their second win in the regular season.
Going into the game, SMC head coach Tim Pierce talked about how last game against Bakersfield they had 20 shots on target but the ball didn't go in. He wants his team to focus on getting the clean sheet if the ball doesn't want to go in the back of the net.
“I mentioned to the team, sometimes the ball doesn't want to go in the goal, and in those scenarios, you gotta make sure you're trying to keep a clean sheet,” Pierce said, “Going into this game. I’m obviously hoping that we can lift our level of goal scoring production. You always want to score goals but sometimes it’s easier said than done.”
The Corsairs dominated the first half on offense, scoring four goals to take the lead. Within the first six minutes, forward Santiago Veizaga was tripped inside the box, earning the Corsairs a penalty. Veizaga stepped up to take the penalty but missed.
The Corsairs responded by applying more attacking pressure on the defense and gave themselves two scoring chances. In the eleventh minute, Veizaga responded after a deflected shot and passed the ball to forward Robert Mejia who scored.
29 minutes into the game, Cougars defender Jacob Larios picked up a yellow card for talking back to the referee after fouling SMC’s defender Joseph Moncada. One of the coaches from the Cougars also got a yellow card because he argued the referee's decision.
The Corsairs got their second goal of the game after the Cougars goalie Zandar MacDonald stepped out to clear the ball, leaving an open net for defender Melvin Santa Cruz to score a header.
With seven minutes left in the half, SMC’s defender Renner Smiley gave a through ball to defender Juan Hermosillo and finished the opportunity by shooting through the goalie's legs.
Angel Diaz went past three defenders and laid it off to midfielder Rani Roff for an easy tap-in goal. The first half ended 4-0.
“Today we just wanted another goal, we were persistent the whole game. It lets us keep scoring goals,” Santa Cruz said. “Their defense looked shaky. They gave up a bunch of mistakes but we ended up scoring through those mistakes.”
In the second half the Corsairs kept their foot on the pedal. Within the first five minutes, the Corsairs got another early penalty after midfielder Anthony Lopez got tripped from the back. Lopez shot the penalty at the bottom left corner and scored.
After the game Lopez explained what was going through his head when he took the penalty. “Against Bakersfield I missed a penalty. So I just tried to make it, and get my confidence back,” Lopez said.
In minute 61, Diaz took on two opponents and a nice pass to forward Miguel Cano, who scored the sixth goal. A minute later, Lopez scored his second of the night with a volley, making the score for 7-0.
Dominating possession for 10 minutes, the Corsairs added another two goals. In minute 70, Diaz took on another two players then passed it to Cano for him to score another goal.
Forward Zen Franco made a run on the left side and crossed the ball, resulting in an own goal when Cougars defender Isaac Negrete tried to clear the ball but it went into the Cougars' net.
To end off the night, forward Aydin Leyva was one versus one against the goalie and finished with a top left corner goal. The game ended 10-0, with the Corsairs scoring double digits for the first time this season.
“I am happy with this performance. After we scored a couple goals, the other team kind of gave up. The best thing about this was we were able to rotate a lot of guys and give new players some minutes,” Pierce said.
The Corsairs will play their next game away on Friday, Oct. 16, at 6:30 p.m. against Glendale Community College.