Orange Coast College

Men's Soccer: Pirates fit to be tied with Long Beach

Friday, September 07, 2007

COSTA MESA -- The learning lessons continue for the Orange Coast College men's soccer team after Friday's 2-2 nonconference tie with visiting Long Beach on Friday.

Jumping out to a 2-0 lead with dominant play, the Pirates (2-1-1) weren't able to finish off the Vikings (1-0-3) and the guests responded with a pair of second-half goals to force the stalemate.

"Up 2-0 early, you'd like a win. But against a team like Long Beach, a tie isn't such a bad thing," OCC assistant coach Glenn Strachan said. "We were able to control things early on and we had opportunities to make it a three or four goal lead before the half, but we weren't able to put them away. In the second half, we got out of our game and got on our heels a bit. It's a learning process and we'll keep improving as the season rolls along."

It was a back-and-forth type of match early on as both teams tried to set their own offensive tempo. But, in the 21st minute, it was the Pirates who used a free kick to their advantage as Matt Blank fired a perfect shot into the goalie area and Curtis Tanaguchi picked up the loose ball and knocked a shot into the net for a 1-0 OCC lead.

Just five minutes later, it was 2-0 as John Shinjo sent a corner kick right to the head of teammate Jarred Balbas, who beat Vikings' goalkeeper Chris DeWalt (eight saves) for a 2-0 Pirate advantage.

Long Beach started the second half with the aggressive soccer on its side and in the 65th minute, Albert Jimenez took a pass from Alex Reuss and beat OCC keeper Joey Balbas (seven saves) with a shot that went off of Balbas' hand and into the back of the net.

After a couple of near-goals by both teams, the Vikings were able to even things up in the 75th minute off a corner kick when Pedro Naranjo sent a shot into the pile of bodies in front of the net. The ball ended up on the foot of Ernesto Mariscal, who ripped a shot in the goal to cap off the scoring.

OCC will continue its nonconference schedule on Tuesday at home against Glendale, beginning at 3 p.m.