Brandie Harris scored twice in the first 20 minutes on Tuesday night and SBCC went on to rout Cuesta 6-1 in a WSC North women’s soccer match at La Playa Stadium.
The 12th-ranked Vaqueros (11-4-2, 7-1-2) won for the seventh time in eight games and moved into first place with two games remaining. They have 23 points, one more than L.A. Pierce (7-1-1) and Ventura (7-2-1). Ventura beat Pierce 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Harris has scored in seven straight games and has 17 goals during that span. She boosted her season total to 26 goals, which is No. 1 in Southern Cal and one shy of the school record set by Jessica Domenichelli in 2011.
Harris scored in the fourth minute by kicking the ball past the goalie, who had come way off her line, then catching up to it and scoring into an empty net. Cuesta’s Serena Hughes evened the score 40 seconds later.
“Once they got their goal, that was a wake-up call,” said Harris, a sophomore from Dos Pueblos High.
Harris put SBCC ahead to stay by taking a cross from Mackenzie Rios and bouncing a 10-yard shot off the left goalpost and in. Harris hit the crossbar and the right post later in the first half before sitting out the second half.
Lauren Dickson made it 3-1 in the 31st minute after Athena Nava shot one off the top of the goalie’s hands and it landed right at Dickson’s feet. Seven minutes later, Dickson booted the ball toward the end line and Briana Lopez scored from a sharp angle to make it 4-1 at the half.
“Brandie looked very sharp up top and Briana also,” said coach John Sisterson. “At times, we moved the ball around very well. We got a few goals up, so it gave us the opportunity to get some other faces in the game.”
What makes Harris such a good goal scorer?
“She’s quick, she’s tenacious, she knows where the back of the net is and she has a great work rate,” Sisterson noted. “She’s working all the time, tracking back … She’s just a good all-around player.”
The Vaqueros got off 26 shots compared to eight for the Cougars (1-7-1).
Hannah Martin headed in her first goal in the 80th minute off a nice corner from Sam Maxwell and Astrid Thiel got her first score in the 88th on an assist from Martin.
The Vaqueros host Ventura in a first-place battle on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
