Canyons Opens Conference Schedule 1-0 Over Antelope Valley

By Mari Kneisel/COC Sports Information 

College of the Canyons took down Antelope Valley College at the Cougar Soccer Field Tuesday night to open Western State Conference (WSC), South Division play with a 1-0 victory, snapping a three-game losing streak. 

Canyons (4-7-2, 1-0) had not scored a goal in 348 minutes leading up to freshman Christian Hanson's game winning strike. 

Antelope Valley (3-7-1, 0-1) was also scoreless it its last three matches and almost broke that streak, however COC freshman goalkeeper Hunter Maiden came up big with 21 minutes to go in the first half. 

The monumental save came off a shot from AVC's Hugo Santana on a run down the left side where Maiden charged out and challenged Santana, managing to knock the strike away. His efforts proved to be pertinent to the Cougars' victory.

Both teams continued to work back and forth through the opening half, but Canyons came out firing on all cylinders after the intermission, leading to the game-winning goal in the 46th minute of play.  

The goal came off a counter, after the Cougars' defense stripped AVC of the ball and quickly moved it up the field. The ball was then slotted through for Hanson, who worked for the one-on-one with AVC's goalkeeper Oscar Flores, winning the battle and hammering it to the near post. 

The Cougars kept pressing for majority of the second half, but AVC fought back creating several opportunities that threatened to bring about a 1-1 result. 

However, the Canyons defense was solid throughout the game with Vegas Roberts, Jack Whitney, Christian Lanzas-Castillo and Diego Briseno keeping the line and creating Cougar attacks. 

COC sophomore Gage Fritz was instrumental through the midfield, with several take-aways and distributions.

Maiden (2-5-1) stood between the posts for the full 90 minutes, picking up the huge save and earning the win.  

Canyons is on the road for its next couple of games, first seeing Glendale College on Friday, Oct. 18 for a 2 p.m. kick-off before heading to Bakersfield College on Tuesday, Oct. 22 for a 4 p.m. start time.

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 X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. 

—Photo by Carla Sophia Velasco/COC Sports Information