Steve Hoffman is the only head coach the Ventura College women's soccer team has ever known. In his 26th year, Hoffman led his Pirates onto the pitch for the 550th time on Tuesday and VC used a strong second half to defeat three-time defending Western State Conference champion Santa Barbara 3-1 in the WSC opener for both teams at the Sportsplex. Areanna Covarrubias scored the game-winner and Tiffany Hernandez had a pair of assists to lead the Pirates (7-2-1, 1-0) into the early driver's seat in the conference race.
It was a back-and-forth first half with the ball traveling from goal line to goal line with neither team able to find the inside of the net. The Pirates, who have won 16 WSC titles since 1996, the last coming in 2016, seemed to be the aggressors for most of the action, but the Vaqueros, who won conference crowns in 2017, '18 and '19 (there was no season in 2020 due to Covid-19), broke the ice with a goal in the 34th minute. The teams went into intermission with SBCC ahead 1-0.
Ventura came out swinging in the second half. They began to apply pressure to the back of the SBCC defense around the 50-minute mark and finally broke through 10 minutes later when Alix Tirado finished a lovely through ball from Tiffany for the equalizer.
After leveling the score, VC kept the pressure going. In the 64th minute Covarrubias settled a ball from Tiffany in front of the net, slotting a shot inside the far post for what would become the game-winner.
At that point the Vaqueros seemed to be on their heels a bit, but they managed to temporarily turn back the Pirate pressure. Timely substitutions by the Pirate head coach kept fresh legs forward, however, and Ventura sealed the win in the 80th minute. Salma Galvan possessed the ball in the middle before dropping it to the left side to Justice Jones who avoided one defender before rocking a shot to the back of the net for a 3-1 margin.
Aaliyah Lopez anchored the Ventura defense in goal, while defender Annette Castrejon also had a solid game in the back.
Tirado keyed the pace on offense throughout the game as VC finished the night with 11 shots, six on goal.
VC next travels to rival Moorpark College on Friday Oct. 1 for a 4:00 pm kickoff at Raider Pitch.