The Biola Women’s Soccer team hosted the Hope International Royals in their last regular season home game. The Royals played a hard fought battle. However, with the great defensive play by the back line and a long goal by junior forward Taylor Venegas, Biola stayed on a hot streak, winning the match 1-0.
The dominant defensive display by Biola helped senior goalkeeper Marina Rodriguez record her third straight shut out, who played in her last regular season home game. The defense led by sophomore defender Cat Newberry helped hold the Royals to a Biola season low of one shot the entire game.
"Constantly improving communication with the defense, and consistently capitalizing on our goals as a team on defense during practice has finally shown through the recent stretch of games," Rodriguez said.
After a mad scramble for the ball with the Royals goalkeeper, another Hope defender and Biola sophomore defender Samantha Verdusco, the ball poked free. The loose ball allowed junior forward Venegas to take an open net shot, resulting in a goal with 35 minutes left in the game.
“Initially i thought the referee would call the goal back, because maybe the ref would think Sam [Verdusco] took the ball out of the goalies hands,” Venegas said. “So I honestly just shot the ball thinking it would be called back, so I was surprised that the score stayed.”
Being Senior Night, the win was bittersweet for the senior Eagles, marking their last time playing a regular season home game. The senior starting forward Brittney Sayre played well by facilitating many scoring opportunities for the Eagles throughout the game.
Although they played their last home game of the regular season, the Eagles will begin a three game road trip to close out the season, beginning with a trek to Costa Mesa. They will be taking on Golden State Athletic Conference rival, The Vanguard Lions at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Vanguard is 9-4-1 on the season and are fifth in the division with a 3-2-1 division record.
