Bobcats battle Santiago Canyon to a draw

The Saddleback women's soccer team ran its unbeaten streak to seven games with a 2-2 tie at Santiago Canyon College on Tuesday in Orange.  The Bobcats and Hawks remain in a tie for first place in the Orange Empire Conference.

Saddleback and Santiago Canyon entered the day in a tie for first place in conference play, and nothing changed after 90 minutes of play.  The Bobcats and Hawks battled for nearly three hours as a result of the game being delayed for an hour because of lightning in the area. 

Saddleback scored first when Kylie Beu rattled a ball off the crossbar and Chloe Green (pictured) cleaned up the rebound for a 1-0 lead in the 23^rd minute.  It was Green's fifth goal of the season and second goal in as many games.

Santiago Canyon tied the game in the 36^th minute when Alyssa Rubio netted her eighth goal of the year off a pass from Nikki Marino.  The teams then played to a stalemate for the remainder of the half.

The second half was interrupted four minutes into play when lightning in the area made all of the players and fans leave the stadium for a mandatory 30 minutes.  The game started about an hour later after the teams had some time to warm up and the conditions were deemed safe.

Santiago Canyon grabbed the momentum in the 63^rd minute when Nikki Marino scored her ninth goal of the season off a pass from Sheila Sanchez.  The Bobcats answered back in the 75^th minute when Lizbeth De Loera scored on a rebound after Chloe Green had put a ball on net.  It was a team-leading sixth goal of the season for De Loera and put an end to the Hawk momentum.

Santiago Canyon had one more scoring chance in the final minutes from point blank, but goalie Olivia Wynn steered the shot aside to run her season record to 2-0-1.  Wynn made five save in seven attempts on the afternoon.

Saddleback will play again on Friday when it hosts Golden West College inside the stadium.  The Bobcats and Rustlers are scheduled to start at 3:00 PM.