The 2021 Rio Hondo College women's soccer season came to a crushing end on Saturday night after the Roadrunners fell to visiting Mt. San Antonio College 4-3 in a penalty kick shootout that decided who advanced to the CCCAA State Championships.
For the third time this month, No. 1-seeded Rio Hondo and No. 4 Mt. SAC battled to a tie. After scoreless draws in the past two contests, both teams were finally able to score. The Mounties struck for the first goal of the season as Kayla Allen got Mt. SAC on the board with her goal in the 16th minute.
The Mounties held that advantage at halftime and appeared to be on the way to the victory until Rio Hondo finally got the equalizer late in the contest. With 10 minutes to play, sophomore Toni Gonzalez scored her first goal of the season to tie things up and eventually send the game to overtime.
The two squads were unable to score over two 15-minute overtime periods which sent the game to a penalty kick shootout.
Rio Hondo and Mt. SAC were tied up in PKs at 3-3 but consecutive misses by the Roadrunners allowed the Mounties to convert one for the win.
The Roadrunners ended the season with an impressive 17-1-3 overall record. Rio Hondo captured its sixth conference title over the past seven seasons winning the South Coast Conference North Division with an 8-0-1 mark. Rio Hondo made its sixth straight postseason appearance under head coach Jennifer Tanaka-Hoshijo.