by Dennis McCall
Taft Midway Driller
Following up on their stunning victory over the No. 1 team in the nation, the Taft College women's soccer team coasted to a 6-0 home victory Thursday over College of the Sequoias.
The win keeps the Cougars on top of the Central Valley Conference at 4-0, 10-5-1 overall heading down the home stretch of the regular season.
It will be hard not to look ahead to the regular season finale Nov. 15 when the Cougars host Fresno City College – the team they beat a week ago that sent shockwaves through the state.
TC will tune up for that finale by hosting once-beaten Moorpark College (9-1-6) today in a non-conference match and taking a trip to Lemoore Friday to play winless West Hills.
In the win over Sequoias the Cougars got a balanced scoring effort with three goals in each half.
Sierra Sagasta scored her sixth and seventh goals of the season and added her third assist to pace the Cougar offense. Arielle Stoyanow got her sixth goal.
The Cougars wasted little time getting on the board when Sagasta took a pass from Lydia Nava and found the back of the net two minutes in.
Sagasta got credit for the assist when Alexia Gonzalez scored her fourth goal in the 15th minute to make it 2-0.
In the waning moments of the first half Trina Leija scored her first goal of the season off a pass from Ariel Manzano.
Sagasta scored her second goal of the match in the 65th minute off an assist from Carla Salazar, and Stoyanow took a pass from Robyn Peiler in the 74th for Taft's fifth goal.
Moani Rivers scored the final goal in the 89th minute with the assist going to Shandy Hopeau.
Freshman goalkeeper Alexandria Benevidez recorded her fifth consecutive shutout by stopping all three Sequoias shots on goal.
TC took 23 shots on goal, keeping COS keeper Anna Covarrubias busy with 17 saves.
The match was originally scheduled for Nov. 6 but changed because COS coach Osama Hamid, who is also a professor, had a scheduling conflict.
CVC Standings
Taft 4-0 (10-5-1)
Fresno 2-1 (12-1-3)
Sequoias 1-3 (5-11)
West Hills 0-3 (0-11)