Orange Coast College

Men's Soccer: Pirates open OEC play with loss to Santiago Canyon

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

COSTA MESA - The Orange Coast College men's soccer team opened Orange Empire Conference play with a 2-0 loss to visiting Santiago Canyon on Tuesday at the OCC Soccer Complex.

The Hawks (6-1-1, 1-0-0 in conference) took advantage of a misplayed ball by the OCC defense in the 11th minute and turned it into a 2-on-1 scoring opportunity. From there, Carlos Chavez fed a nice pass to Tyler Petry, who slipped past charging OCC goalkeeper Joey Balbas and into the empty net for a 1-0 SCC lead.

Just seven minutes later, the Hawks' forwards used several nice touch-passes to get around the Pirates' defenders and the team's leading goal scorer, Marco Casalinuovo, made them pay by draining his sixth goal of the season to make it 2-0.

The Pirates (4-3-2, 0-1-0) were able to generate some scoring opportunities of their own, but Hawks' goalkeeper Alan Orriny was there to preserve the shutout. The freshman netminder posted eight saves for the win.

In the second half, OCC tried to force the issue, but the Hawks were content to flood their side of the field with players and keep the ball out of harm's way and that plan proved successful.

The Pirates return to action on Friday with a conference road matchup against Riverside, beginning at 3 p.m.