Women’s Soccer: Rio Hondo comes up short in SCC Tournament final

Photo by Marco Lopez
Photo by Marco Lopez

The 2021 South Coast Conference Women's Soccer Tournament championship final came down to a penalty kick shootout after Rio Hondo College and Mt. San Antonio College battled for 90 scoreless minutes for the second time in two weeks. But on Friday at El Camino College in Torrance, the Roadrunners came up short, falling 4-2 in PKs to the Mounties.

Rio Hondo and Mt. SAC had just met two weeks ago in the regular-season finale in Whittier. The two teams played to a scoreless tie, which allowed the Roadrunners at 8-0-1 (25 pts.) to edge the Mounties (7-0-2, 23 pts.) for the South Coast Conference North Division championship.

With Friday's win, Mt. SAC receives the SCC's automatic bid in the playoffs. Now with a 15-1-2 overall record, Rio Hondo was already a lock for the postseason but was playing to secure a top-four seed and home field advantage in the Southern California Regionals. Playoff seedings and matchups will be announced on Tuesday.

The Roadrunners advanced Friday's tournament championship after beating Long Beach City College 2-1 in the tourney semifinals on Tuesday. Freshman Camilla Garcia scored twice to provide the offense for Rio Hondo while freshman Daniella Marin was huge in goal posting eight saves.