By Dave Loveton
SBCC Sports Information Specialist
SBCC women's soccer coach John Sisterson celebrated his birthday on Tuesday with 12 presents from his No. 1-ranked team.
Katherine Sheehy had a hat trick on a hot afternoon, Valentine Rahm had two goals and Monica Garcia collected three assists, leading SBCC to a 12-0 rout of Cuesta in a WSC North match at La Playa Stadium. It was the sixth straight shutout for the Vaqueros and the 10th in 11 games. They've outscored their last 11 opponents 36-1.
The Vaqueros are ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 3 in the nation.
Santa Barbara won its 13th straight to remain unbeaten on the year with records of 13-0-1 and 4-0 in the WSC. Cuesta, which only had three substitutes, fell to 3-9-2 and 0-4.
The Vaqueros completed a perfect regular-season home campaign with an 8-0 record. We've outscored our opponents 29-0 at La Playa.
The temperature reached 95 degrees and the Vaquero offense was just as hot.
Sheehy, a sophomore from Altadena, notched the first hat trick of her two-year career. In the fifth minute, Chloe Montano passed to Isabella Viana and she rolled the ball to Sheehy for a quick 1-0 lead. At 9:01, Montano delivered a corner kick and Anna Telliard's header was saved. The ball bounced off the keeper Leanne Heslep and right onto the foot of defender Nicole Van Sickle, who scored from close range.
Amber Mulligan pumped in her first goal of the season with a 20-yard shot on an assist from Viana in the 23rd minute. The Vaqueros made it 4-0 at 33:50 when Rahm scored from eight yards out.
Sisterson sent 10 new players into the game after the first-half water break at 22:35 and substituted six players at the 55-minute mark.
Twenty-seven Vaqueros got in the game and 14 had a goal or assist.
Dominique Mihaljevic, a freshman forward from Folsom, scored at 38:04 and Rahm made it 6-0 at the half by ripping in a 22-yard shot in the 43rd minute on an assist from Garcia.
"I thought we'd play well and we did," said Sisterson. "What can you say? We dominated the whole game and didn't concede a goal, which was nice. It was nice to see Kat get a hat trick, she celebrated her birthday just a few days ago.
"It was nice to get all our subs some significant minutes. In games like this, it's all about doing the right thing, regardless of the score."
The Vaqueros had the ball about 95 percent of the time. They outshot the Cougars (3-9-2, 0-4) by a 34-1 margin, including 22-1 in shots on goal. Cuesta's only shot came in the 67th minute and goalie Holly Telliard had to make a scrambling, diving save about 15 yards from the goal.
Minji Kim, a freshman forward from South Korea, scored her first college goal at 67:32 on an assist by Garcia. Just 2:16 later, Matilda Cassel Ledin, a freshman from Sweden, made it 8-0 at the 69:48 mark.
The Vaqueros scored three goals in five minutes. Less than two minutes after Ledin's goal, Bailey Goedert hit the net at 71:40, boosting the lead to 9-0.
The starters went back in for the last 15 minutes.
Sheehy took a pass from Gardenia Maya and scored at 77:12 to make it 10-0. Sheehy got her hat trick at 86:22, putting in a rebound of a Lourdes Gilbert shot.
Viana notched her team-leading 11th goal at 88:30 to stretch it to 12-0. Gilbert assisted on the last two goals.
The Vaqueros will play their last four WSC games on the road, starting Friday at Moorpark at 4 p.m.
