No. 9 Cougars Set For Second Round Playoff Match at No. 8 L.A. Pierce

By Mari Kneisel/COC Sports Information   

No. 9 College of the Canyons (14-3-4) will hit the road Saturday, Nov. 19 to face off with No. 8 L.A. Pierce College (13-2-5) for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Shephard Stadium in the second round of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Women's Soccer Southern California Regional Playoffs. 

General admission tickets to Saturday's match are $12 for adults and $8 for students (valid with I.D.), seniors over 60 and children under 10, as mandated by the CCCAA. 

The winner of Saturday's match will advance to face the victor of the match between No. 1 Chaffey College (18-0-2) and No. 16 San Diego Mesa College (10-7-2), also taking place on Saturday.

A full CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoff bracket can be found here.  

Canyons powered passed Mt. San Jacinto College in a 4-0 shutout victory to secure its spot in the second round.

COC head coach Justin Lundin has the Cougars playing in the postseason for an 11th consecutive season. The Cougars are unbeaten in their last 10 matches, dating back to Oct. 11. During that span Canyons has posted a record of 7-0-3, two of those draws being against conference champion Antelope Valley College, leaving the Cougars second in the Western State Confernece (WSC), South Division.

Statistically, the Cougars are scoring at a rate just above three goals per game. A large number of the goals can be attributed to sophomores Rebekah Brooks (20) and Lauryn Bailey (15). Brooks currently shares the No. 5 rank in the state and Bailey at No. 22. 

Canyons has consistently looked to sophomore goalkeeper Kylie Yuzon to command the net, with the sophomore sporting a record of 9-3-3. 

L.A. Pierce finished third in the WSC, North Division standings behind Allan Hancock and Santa Barbara City College who shared the conference title. With an average of just under three goals per game, Pierce has claimed 51 goals on the season, a good portion coming from freshman Heidi Ricketts (14) and sophomore Natalia Puccio (10). 

The Cougars' 2021 playoff run ended in the second round with a 2-1 loss at Mt. San Antonio College after having beaten San Diego Mesa College in a 4-3 double over-time result in the first round.  

COC has played to a combined postseason record of 6-10 during its 11 consecutive postseason appearances.  

This is L.A. Pierce's 21st appearance in postseason play with its last trip coming in 2021, a 1-0 loss to Ventura College in the first round. 

Canyons and L.A. Pierce have not met since the 2019 regular season. In that meeting it was the Cougars emerging with a 3-0 home win. 

The two sides also met twice in 2017, with the Cougars taking a 7-0 regular season win over the Brahmas before losing to Pierce in a scoreless draw that went to penalty kicks during the opening round of the CCCAA SoCal Regional playoffs. That match represeted the last home playoff game for the Cougars until Tuesday's home postseason match vs. Mt. San Jacinto.

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. 

—Kyle Kawamoto/COC Sports Information