SBVC Outlasts Southwestern to Advance

SBVC Outlasts Southwestern to Advance

As dusk spread across the soccer field at San Bernardino Valley College, one sound pierced through the impending darkness:

"Ana! Ana! Ana! Ana!"

It was the SBVC women's soccer team serenading their goalkeeper, Ana Barajas, after she made two saves during a shootout - including one in the sixth round of penalties - to help the Wolverines advance past Southwestern College in the opening round of the California Community College Athletic Assocation Southern California regional playoffs.

The two teams battled to a scoreless tie through regulation time, sending the game to two 15-minute extra time sessions in an effort to decide who would advance to face No. 1 seeded Rio Hondo College on Saturday.

Southwestern took the advantage late in the first half of extra time. In the 102nd minute, a ball was sent into the SBVC penalty area, where Wolverine defenders tried to clear the ball out with headers. The ball bounded off two SBVC defenders before flying toward Southwestern's Ilucion Duran, who used her head to send the ball into the SBVC goal to give the Jaguars a 1-0 lead.

SBVC pushed forward in the second half of extra time, and got a break in the 118th minute. April Regalado took a shot from about 25 yards out. The ball looped up and over the outstretched hands of Southwestern goalkeeper Mireyli Ramirez, who jumped up to make the catch. The ball hit the crossbar, and bounded downward, hitting Ramirez in the back and careened into the back of the net to tie the game at 1, sending the game to the shootout.

In the shootout, both Barajas and Ramirez made a stop during the opening five rounds, and one shooter for each team missed the net, sending the shootout into a sudden death sixth round. Jovana Soto-Torres put her sixth round shot past Ramirez, giving the Wolverines the lead as Makaia Saucier stepped up for Southwestern. Barajas guessed right, and got her gloves on Saucier's shot to secure the win, and a mobbing by her teammates.

The Wolverines will take on Rio Hondo at 6 p.m. Saturday at Rio Hondo College.