Skyline loses fifth straight game

The Skyline Lady Trojans soccer team lost their fifth straight game, 4-2, to the Hartnell College Panthers on Oct. 22 at Skyline College.Coming into the game, the game seemed to be a battle of opposites; The Panthers came riding on a three game winning streak and Skyline with a four game losing streak.

Somethings got to give, but it did not. It was cold and chilly while nature was taking its course, yet both teams came out firing, as the Panthers had a shot at goal in the first five minutes of the game. “We came out in the first half and did a lot of the things we wanted to do…..We got an early goal,” head coach Kevin Corsiglia said referring to a goal by forward Ileana Moncada of Skyline off of a great assist from.

This brought the Trojans an early 1-0 lead. However, the Panthers had their answer. Stephanie Gonzalez scored off a header from Celina Murillo to tie the game at 1-1, and the game was just beginning. Despite both teams coming in with opposites streaks, they seemed evenly matched at the start of the game. “We are dealing with a lot of injures right now… Some situations as some of our key players are out,” Corsiglia said. Skyline had no subs they could use which would come back in the second half to bite them. In the first half,Moncada scored a beautiful shot over the goalie to retake the lead at 2-1 with 20 minutes left in the game.

After that play, the game, and the weather, got worst for the Lady Trojans, as the Panthers began to take control. The Panthers had three opportunities to score but had all of them taken away by off sides penalties. Adding insult to injury, Trojan Maggie DePaz got injured with a bloody nose and had to come out the game, putting the team at an disadvantage at 10-to-11. The Panthers took full advantage of this with a hand ball penalty against Skyline in the box to give a penalty kick to the Panthers.

Raquel Daniel of Hartnell scored the penalty kick to tie the game at 2-2 and bring the game to half-time. “The penalty that was called on us was unfortunate…We deserved better,” Corsiglia said of the team who played well despite injures, weather and the penalty as the team headed into half-time with work to do.

The second half began with a great start with both teams playing even for most of the half. The intensity really picked up as two yellow cards were issued to the Panthers. With each passing minute, Skyline was beginning to get tired and started to lose containment on key Panther players. Not having any substitute players would eventually and finally doom the Trojans, as Hartnell forward Karly Leon snuck past one Skyline defender and scored on a break-away goal to take the lead: 2-3. Skyline still had a chance to tie late in the second half as Iris Clavel had a break-away shot, but the goalie made a great save to almost seal the deal.

Minutes later, Murillo would put the nail in the coffin with a late goal to end the game at 2-4. “Hopefully we get a few people back,” Corsiglia said. The next game is on Friday Oct. 25 against Canada College here at Skyline, whom they beat early in the year, 4-0. This brings Skyline win total in conference to two wins, five losses.