10/13/10

FRC Women's Soccer

The Feather River College women’s soccer team traveled to Redding to take on the Shasta College Knights Oct. 5, when the Golden Eagles walked away with a hard-fought 2-2 draw and a well-earned point on the road.

Shasta opened the scoring with a well-placed chip shot over FRC keeper Kirsten Coultas.

Coultas, the FRC co-captain, is still recovering from a hip injury. She came up with four saves on the day and cut out another five through balls by playing high up in the box.

“What I love about having Kirsten in goal is that she plays so confidently high in her box, which I know from experience cuts out a lot of goal scoring opportunities that opponents might otherwise have,” said coach Don Williams.

The FRC women went into half time down 1-0, but came out on fire in the second half.

FRC’s trademark is to target passes to the feet of their teammates, rather than resort to the typical kick-and-run style of many untrained opponents.

“When we pass hard to our targets, most teams cannot stop us.” said Williams. “Discipline is the key, and when we do this, the game is beautiful to watch.”

Targeted passing paid off in the 60th minute, when the Lady Eagles moved the ball down the field and the former Quincy High School combination of Blanca Ruiz to Gaby Naranjo paid off with a match-tying goal.

This was Naranjo’s third of the season. Ruiz played the ball across the box to Naranjo who chipped the Knights keeper.

Shasta responded 15 minutes later with a breakaway goal, but Feather River was not dismayed.

Ten minutes before the final whistle, freshman Madeline Ramos struck her fourth goal of the season by hitting her patented left-footed shot over the head of the helpless Knights keeper.

Ramos, who led all players with nine shots on the day, was not done. She hit a right-footed screamer toward goal that barely skimmed over the crossbar.

“I cannot tell you how elated I am with our women,” said Williams. “It has been a difficult, injury-riddled season, but they pull together and will not quit.”