Gauchos run past undermanned Mustangs

The Saddleback women's soccer team cruised to a 6-0 win over Norco College on Tuesday at the Saddleback Stadium.  The Gauchos outshot the Mustangs 42-2 for the day.

Norco showed up with just eight players for the game, which put them at a significant disadvantage before the whistle even blew.  The Gauchos capitalized on the short bench, putting continuous pressure on a Mustang goalkeeper and leaving no doubt about the outcome.

Saddleback scored just twice in the opening half despite outshooting Norco 23-1.  The Gauchos finally broke through against Mustang keeper Kassandra De La Cruz in the ninth minute when Madie Bigcas scored an unassisted goal for a 1-0 lead.  Later in the half, Collette Halloran (pictured) redirected a pass from Kailey Kerr and the lead was 2-0.  In the meantime, De La Cruz kept the Mustangs in the game by making 18 saves in the opening 45 minutes.

Saddleback stretched out the lead in the final half as Norco started to wear down.  Brittany Kaufman scored in the 47^th minute after receiving a pass from Lily Woo for a 3-0 lead.  Woo then fed Marisa Covarrubias for another in the 50^th minute as things started to get away from the Mustangs.  Rebecca Zachary and Berkeley DePrisco then scored goals in the 55^th and 68^th minutes, respectively, to put some icing on the cake.

Saddleback ended up outshooting Norco 42-2 for the game as the Mustangs never had a shot on goal.  Dz-Rae Jara picked up the shutout in nets for her fourth shutout of the season.

Saddleback is now 5-3-1 overall and 2-3 in Orange Empire Conference play following the win.  The Gauchos will play again at Fullerton College on Friday.  Saddleback and Fullerton are scheduled to start at 3:00 PM.