When two league champs meet, fans expect to see a great game; and they got treated to just that when Moorpark College women’s soccer faced off against the Pierce College Brahmas Tuesday.

“You can call it a battle of the champs,” said Raiders head coach Eric Privat. “Everyone was waiting to see the results of this game.”

The Raiders and Brahmas both took home the title of Western State Conference champions in 2007 with the Raiders winning the Northern Division and Brahmas winning the Southern.

The game plan for the Raiders was to go out and maintain a high rhythm and fast paced game. They did just that, which forced the Brahmas out of their game. For the first 10 minutes both teams played evenly matched, but after that the game proved to be all Raiders.

In the 15th minute of the first half, Raiders Cecilia Engelking scored the go ahead goal after beating her defender and placing the ball right past the goal keeper.

The key factor for the game that helped Raiders get to victory was the fact that their defense continued to be solid. When it seemed like an attack was mounting for Pierce, Moorpark’s defense came through to foil the plans. This was evident in the 29th minute of the game when Pierce was on a counter attack that ended with a great slide tackle from Breana Sowell.

The second half heroics belonged not only to the Raiders defense, but also to their striker Brianna Miller, who scored an amazing chip shot over the Brahmas’ goalie from about 30 yards out over the goalie’s head.

“Today it didn’t seem like they [Pierce] had their fighting spirit,” said Raiders assistant coach Mark Tietjen. “We took them out of their game early and they just couldn’t catch up with us.”

The win today keeps up with a familiar trend for opponents of Moorpark: strong defense.

“This is the fifth shut-out in six games,” said Privat. “That speaks loudly of how the team wants to get behind the ball and win.”

With the Raiders’ victory over the Brahmas they move up to an impressive record of 3-1-1 on the season. Their next game will be away at Fullerton College with kick off at 3:00 p.m. The Raiders will return home Tuesday September 16th to face Glendale College with kick off at 4:00 p.m.