No. 9 SBCC Women’s Soccer Blanks Allan Hancock to Remain Unbeaten in Conference Play, 2-0

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The No. 9 Santa Barbara City College Women’s Soccer team (15-4, 10-0) took care of business against Allan Hancock (7-11-1, 4-7) on Friday afternoon at La Playa Stadium, winning 2-0.

In a dead rubber game for the Vaqueros—already crowned conference champions for the third straight year—they played free and easy in their penultimate home game.

The ball hardly left the Hancock half of the field in the opening half hour. While the Vaqueros had a few chances early on, the visitors actually were the closest to scoring first. Out of nowhere, a one-on-one opportunity with Vaquero goalie Natalie Gonzalez was hit wide—a warning sign for Santa Barbara.

The Vaqueros eventually took the lead off a corner, as London Cespedes‘ header off Malia Misawa‘s corner broke the deadlock. It was the sophomore’s first goal of the year, and that scoreline stayed—1-0 Vaqueros—into the break.

Leilani Sanchez nearly added to her team-leading goal tally shortly into the second half. She and the Hancock goalie were chasing after the same ball, which the Hancock goalie attempted to clear.

Sanchez blocked the clearance, and the ricochet had such gnarly spin that it landed a yard from the goal line and bounced backwards, away from the goal. Sanchez noticed that immediately, though, and her ensuing header went off the post and back into the Hancock goalie’s arms. A crazy play, but the score remained 1-0.

With less than 10 minutes left, the Vaqueros got their second goal to seal the game. Sheila Begovic got the ball around midfield and sent Giselle Najera running down the right flank. Najera hit a hard, low cross that Fiona Bulmer bundled into the back of the net for her sixth goal in four games.

As the 10th conference win for the Vaqueros, it matched their total from 2024, yet there’s still two more games to play this year.

The first of those two games is Sophomore Day on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. at La Playa Stadium against bottom-of-the-table Oxnard (1-10-2, 0-9). The teams will square off twice that week, with the second match coming at Oxnard on Friday.