It was a 2-0 home victory for the San Diego City College women’s soccer team against Southwestern College on Nov. 14 as the Knights finished the season in second place in the Pacific Coast-South Athletic Conference with an overall record of 8-11-2 and a conference record of 5-3.

“This was the highest we finished since I’ve been coaching here for the past 12 years,” said Head Coach Andi Milburn.

The game began with the Knights playing aggressive on both sides — the defense was able to keep Southwestern out and stopped their promising attacks. Freshman forward Sandra Buckner kept the Southwestern defense on their toes and had a couple of opportunities to score but it didn’t go her way.

During the first half, the Knights were pressuring the Jaguars but couldn’t seem to stay onside and got called for offsides several times. Just before the first half ended, the Jaguars had a shot on goal but sophomore goalkeeper Charlotte Guerrero had a big save and the half ended, 0-0.

“We played a little bit more strength in the defense because we wanted to come out strong and be nice and sound back there,” Milburn said. “So at the start (of the second half) we switched to more of an attacking mentality and shifted some players around.”

The switch proved to be the final piece of the puzzle for the Knights. In the second half, the Knights were knocking at the door, Buckner had another shot on goal but was wide right but several minutes later after her missed — Buckner found the back of the net at the 65th minute.

The attack was led by sophomore midfielder Rebecca Garcia. Garcia managed to move the ball up against the Jaguars defense and sent a perfect pass to Buckner.

“I saw Sandra, she was open and in my head I was like ‘Get it to Sandra, Get it to Sandra!’ and she had a shot,” Garcia said. “She had a beautiful finish that gave us the lead.”

After the goal, the Jaguars were looking to tie the game but after a failed attack the Knights defense sent the ball flying to their offense. The Southwestern defense were caught off guard, and Garcia chased down the ball and managed kicked the ball over the goalkeeper for the score and to secure a comfortable lead in the game at 68th minute.

“I think this was probably the best game that we had all season against Southwestern. This was our last game of the season — we were playing for second place and we had to win in order to get second place and we did that and I’m so proud of the girls,” Garcia said.

With the win against the Jaguars to end the season, the women’s soccer team will be looking to carry their success next year and come back stronger.