Late rally pushes Gauchos past Chargers

The Saddleback women's soccer team scored three goals in the final 18 minutes in beating Cypress College, 3-2, on Tuesday afternoon at the Saddleback Stadium.  Emilee Monnig's goal in the 90^th minute capped of a late rally to push the Gauchos back into second place.                                   

Saddleback was coming off a disappointing 2-0 loss to Orange Coast on Friday and many wondered how they would respond.  At first it didn't look good, as Cypress scored in the fifth minute to take a 1-0 lead and held the lead until the half.  The Chargers upped the lead to 2-0 in the 55^th minute when Kristen Avila scored unassisted, leaving little hope that Saddleback would snap the brief losing streak.

Saddleback finally broke through in the 73^rd minute when Breanna Taboada tallied her eighth goal of the season unassisted to cut the lead in half.  Three minutes later the Gauchos got the equalizer when Monnig tallied eighth of the year off a pass from Liana Larkins to set up a wild finish.

Saddleback scored the game-winner in the final minute when Monica Venturini slid a pass to Monnig, who jammed home her ninth goal of the season past keeper Paulina Serna while the sidelines erupted.  It was just the third time the Gauchos have ever beaten Cypress in 30 tries, and the second time in the past five weeks.

With the win, Saddleback (11-3-1, 7-2-1) now climbs back into sole possession of second place, one point in front of Cypress (11-3-0, 7-3-0).  The Gauchos will play next at Fullerton College on Friday at 3:00 PM.  Saddleback defeated Fullerton 3-0 on September 22 in the first meeting of the season.