LA JUNTA, CO – Early offense from Otero College had the Laramie County Community College women's soccer team on the ropes, but a clutch goal in the second half and a very strong defensive performance for the final 80 minutes helped the Golden Eagles to earn a 1-1 draw with the Rattlers on Friday afternoon.

"In our postgame talk, the vibe was that we should have won that game and that's on us," Head Coach Lugo Arenas said afterwords. "We just came out real flat and unfortunately that's kind of been our consistency. We always have to fight back so that's something that we have to fix."

Both teams had some early breakaway chances in the first half, but it was the Otero side that was able to draw first blood in the eighth minute when a breakaway from the left sideline led to a one on one that the Rattlers capitalized on for the early lead.

The two sides would pick at each other for the rest of the opening half but no real scoring chances developed and the two teams went to the half with the home side leading 1-0.

In the second, the Golden Eagles shuffled their line up to bring more energy to the front of the attack the change worked.

"I went with the individuals that were willing to put in the extra work. I think there were too many excuses thrown in, but the other team is playing in the same conditions we do and it was nice finding a group that would lay it all out there, not just for this team but for this school."

LCCC would stay on the attack for most of the opening 15 minutes of the second half and turned the pressure into an equalizer when Celeste Jimenez-Montero put a corner kick into the back of the net after she found herself just on the edge of the six-yard box.

"This was her coming out party," Arenas said of the effort Jimenez-Montero gave. "She stepped up and the maturity showed, the national team level popped out and you could even see that from the emotion. She's been close all season long for a few goals and something on a set piece was big for her."

Now that the game was even, the energy from the Golden Eagles rose even more as they continued to apply the pressure to the Rattlers.

Despite multiple corner kicks in the final 20 minutes, the Golden Eagles couldn't find a way to break through again and had to settle for the draw as they move to 5-4-2 on the season and 3-2-1 in conference play.

LCCC outshot the Rattlers in the game 22-4, showing their control of the second half where they took 13 shots to just one from Otero. Only one of the Rattlers shots was actually on goal, that being the one they scored on in the ninth minute.

The Golden Eagles are back on the road on Saturday when they will face off with the Trinidad State College Trojans. TSC enters the match at the bottom of the region standings and are 0-7 on the season.

Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 pm after the LCCC men wrap up their game with the Trojans at 11:00 am. For more information on the women's soccer schedule, please visit www.golccc.com.