ORANGE – One week from the start of Crestview League games, there was little doubt Canyon’s girls soccer team needed a momentum swing.
The Comanches had gone winless in their last four, and Wednesday they trailed by a goal as they headed into the latter stages of its game against El Modena.
Canyon scored three goals over the final 11 minutes as the Comanches edged the Vanguards, 3-1, in a nonleague game at El Modena.
Jennifer Rose had the equalizer in the 69th minute. Penelope Hocking scored the winner in the 77th minute, and she later netted an insurance marker in stoppage time.
Hocking, a sophomore commit to USC, was in the middle of every attack for the Comanches down the stretch. Her shot was blocked on a 2-on-1 break, but the ball caromed to Rose, who tied it.
It seemed Canyon’s efforts might be hindered when Alexis Cherry, who takes the team’s corner kicks, went out with cramps. But the Comanches (7-8-1) continued to stretch the field with through balls from their defense, and they were rewarded when one Hocking sister found the other.
Iliana Hocking sent Penelope Hocking in alone on her off wing. The right-footed striker fired across the goal mouth and into the right corner for the go-ahead score.
“When (Iliana) sent it in, I just thought I had to put it away,” Penelope Hocking said. “I just picked my head up and picked where I wanted to go. It was just my time to get my whole team to be pumped up.”
Sydney Carr scored her 18th goal of the season. Her goal in the 2nd minute gave the Vanguards (8-3-4) a 1-0 lead. The UC Irvine commit is tied for second in the county in goal scoring.
The Comanches took some time to read the high-pressure approach of El Modena, and after that, it was a matter of patience.
“We started opening more spaces and sending more long balls instead of playing short due to the pressure we were receiving,” Comanches coach Pedro Santos said. “That’s something that I am very happy with. We’re not only a team that plays the ball well, but reads the game and we can react to different situations.”
