by Dennis McCall
Taft Midway Driller
Both of Taft College's soccer teams will christen the home season today when they host Santa Barbara City College at the Taft High soccer complex at Tenth and San Emidio streets.
For the Cougar women, who play the 1 p.m. opening match, it will be their second outing of the season. They opened the campaign last Friday by edging San Diego City College 2-1 at home.
The TC men, meanwhile, will get their season off the ground at 3 p.m.
Santa Barbara's teams are typically among the top tier in southern California. They had mixed results in their season openers last week.
On Thursday the SBCC women defeated Golden West 2-0 while their male counterparts dropped a 2-0 decision to Los Angeles Harbor on Friday.
In their win over San Diego, both goals were scored by sophomore midfielder Ariel Manzano in the first half.
The first came in the 20th minute on a pass from sophomore Arielle Stoyanow, the second seven minutes later on an assist from freshman Robyn Peiler.
San Diego countered with a goal in the 65th minute but the Cougar defense preserved the victory.
Both Cougar teams are young and coming off strong seasons a year ago.
The men were undefeated heading into the state championships before losing a 1-0 heartbreaker to eventual state champ Cerritos in the semi-finals.
The women, meanwhile, pulled off two big upsets before being knocked out of the playoffs.
After opening today against Santa Barbara, the Cougar men will host Los Angeles Mission Friday at 3 p.m.
Noteworthy: (Men) Defending state champ Cerritos had a rough opener, losing to Rio Hondo 4-2 last Thursday before playing Oxnard to a 3-all standoff on Saturday. Mt. SAC, which lost 3-1 to Cerritos in the 2014 men's title match, got off to a good start by thumping West Valley 5-0 and Las Positas 3-0.
TC will travel to Livermore Sept. 18 to play Las Positas. Central Valley Conference foes Fresno (2-1 over Lake Tahoe) and West Hills-Lemoore (5-2 over Victor Valley) got off on winning notes but Sequoias tied Shasta 1-1. (Women) CVC powerhouse Fresno defeated Mendocino 2-0 and tied Cerritos 2-2. West-Hills Lemoore got clobbered 8-0 by Victor Valley and Sequoias blanked Monterey 3-0.