The De Anza College women’s soccer team tied 2-2 against rival Foothill College on Tuesday Oct. 28, making its record 4-4-2 in conference play this season.

Within the first 10 minutes, De Anza had already made numerous attempts on Foothill’s goal following well-positioned passes from sophomore midfielder Madlyn Kelly. Forwards Cassondra Polini and Sulma Plancarte displayed team chemistry as well, each shooting narrow misses and causing disturbances in Foothill’s defense.

Escaping from these close calls, Foothill began to counterattack, pushing through the Dons’ defense and weaving in and out. Controlling the midfield now, Foothill made repeated runs toward De Anza’s net, but a good performance from De Anza’s defense and sophomore goalkeeper Alexia Flippen kept the Owls off the board momentarily.

After several minutes, Foothill’s aggression paid off as Foothill forward Mililani Cosare edged the first goal of the game in to give them a 1-0 lead.

Sometime during first half there was a collision involving a Foothill forward and De Anza midfielder. An audible smack was heard as De Anza freshman Ashley Evans went down, and the crowd soon began murmuring for a foul. The referee made no call and the game went on with tensions rising as the first half ended with De Anza trailing 1-0.

The second half began with Dons’ sophomore Alejandra Gutierrez making good use of field space and capitalizing on a well-positioned pass from Kelly, driving the first goal of the game in for the Dons.

Not breaking stride though, Foothill forward Cosare broke through gaps in De Anza’s defense to give Foothill a 2-1 lead.

In the 74th minute of the game, after repeated drives with no results, De Anza sophomore Jenny Wu caught Foothill’s goalkeeper out of position and placed a gentle shot into the net, tying the game 2-2.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, both teams raced to gain the upperhand, but as the time dwindled down neither team could find any openings and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

“Both teams put up a good performance…coming in, we knew we were facing a tough challenge,” said head coach Cheryl Owiesny. “It was a competitive game with a competitive atmosphere, and looking forward, it’s only going to be harder.”

The next home game for the Dons is Tuesday Nov. 11 at 3 p.m. against West Valley.