On Friday, Nov. 6, the Santa Monica College Corsairs won 1-0 against Antelope Valley College after scoring on a penalty kick in the second half. The win came after a serious first-half collision sent forward Robert Mejia to the hospital.
Going into this game, SMC head coach Tim Pierce talked about his familiarity with the team after facing them earlier in the season.
“They’re going to be tough. I’m sure they’re going to come out defending pretty hard. They are a competitive team,” he said. “When we played them earlier, we were down a man the whole second half. We had a red card early on, so hopefully we can keep 11 players on the field and put together a better performance.”
The first 23 minutes of the half were physical, with five fouls between both teams. Three were committed by the Corsairs and two by the Marauders.
In the eighth minute, the Marauders were through on goal, but Corsair goalkeeper Diego Barillas Paredes kept his composure and dispossessed the attacker. Later, SMC midfielder Zach Shayne sent a ball over the defense to forward Zen Franco. He took a shot, but the defender got a foot in the way and blocked it.
In the 22nd minute, Mejia went for a ball that was sent over the defense. As the ball was in the air, Marauder goalkeeper Dylan Hammer came out to clear it and collided with Mejia. Mejia suffered a neck injury and was taken to the hospital.
“He got a bad fracture on his neck, so they had to send him to the hospital. In our minds, we had to focus on the last 45 minutes and we need to keep working hard and get the result,” SMC forward Aydin Leyva said.
The clock continued running while Mejia was being treated. After he was safely transported to the hospital, the referee blew the whistle, ending the first half.
“Everyone was motivated to get the win for their teammate, but it was a weird thing because the
clock expired, but we could have played the rest of the first half,” said Pierce. “We would have to warm up anyway so we just kind of agreed to warm up and start the second half and play the second half out.”
In the second half, the Corsairs dominated with multiple scoring chances until they finally scored the winning goal from the penalty spot.
In the 50th minute, Franco came close to scoring when he took a shot outside the box, but the Marauders’ goalkeeper saved it. The Corsairs had another close chance when defender Melvin Santa Cruz crossed the ball into the box to forward Santiago Veizaga, but he misjudged his header. Midfielder Anthony Lopez took a long shot, which the goalkeeper initially failed to control. The ball bounced backward, forcing him to react quickly and make a goal-line save.
The Corsairs were awarded a penalty kick after a Marauders defender blocked a shot with his hand. Lopez stepped up to the penalty spot and converted, giving the Corsairs a 1-0 lead.
“Before taking the penalty, in my head I thought ‘I need to score,’ because it is a must win game. I always feel a lot of pressure when taking a penalty, but I made it, and it gave us the three points that we really needed,” Lopez said.
For the rest of the half, the Corsairs kept possession of the ball to secure the win over the Marauders. The win brought the Corsairs to 8-1 in conference play.
“I think the incident definitely brought us closer together. Everyone was motivated to go out and get the win for their teammate,” Pierce said. “They were fired up and wanted to do that, and we did. I thought it was a good moment for the guys to play hard for each other.”
Pierce also explained that the team needs to improve its ability to control its emotions and avoid fighting with each other on the field when the game gets tough.
The Corsairs will play their next game on the road Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 5:30 p.m. against Citrus College.