Orange Coast College

Men's Soccer: Pirates fall to Irvine Valley

Friday, October 31, 2008

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's soccer team came out hot, but couldn't sustain the momentum during Friday's 2-1 Orange Empire Conference loss to visiting Irvine Valley on Friday.

Things looked good early for the hosts as they needed just 30 seconds to find the back of the net. Off a hard OCC shot, the rebound came out to Mitch Williams, who fed a nice pass to teammate Toshi Fujimura and the freshman midfielder buried his opportunity to give Coast (9-6-3, 5-2-3 in conference) a 1-0 lead.

But that would be all of the Pirates' offensive success for the day as Irvine Valley (8-7-2, 6-4-0) responded with goals by Allen Villa in the 20th minute and Bryan Castillo in the 37th minute and held on from there.

In the game's final minutes, the Pirates again turned up the offensive pressure, but their best scoring chance was knocked away by the Lasers' defense.

OCC goalkeeper Brian Rippeto had seven saves, while IVC keeper Mikhail Radchuk posted nine.

The Pirates will return to action on Tuesday at Golden West, beginning at 3 p.m. OCC returns home on Friday against Santa Ana, also at 3 p.m.