Riverside Falls in 3C2A State Semifinal
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#2 Riverside (,) | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
|
#1 Long Beach (,) | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 17 |
No. 2-ranked Riverside City College had to face top-ranked Long Beach City College for the fifth time this season, but couldn't overcome the Vikings in a 17-8 loss Friday morning in the 3C2A State Championship semifinals.
The Tigers drop to 30-5 on the year and have one game left to play as they will battle for third place Saturday morning. The Vikings improve to 38-2 overall and advance to the championship game.
Nicole Robertson and Abigail Ruiz each scored twice for Riverside, which also saw goals from Samantha Thomas, Clare Baty, Aleira Valenzuela and Annabella Storar.
Things were close in the opening eight minutes, but Long Beach started to increase its lead and held a 7-2 upper hand at halftime.
Despite the five-goal deficit, the Tigers kept battling but couldn't get the stops they needed on defense to chip away at the margin, slowly seeing the game slip away before the Vikings closed out the 17-8 victory.
Riverside will face West Valley in the third-place game on Saturday at 9:30 a.m.