Orange Coast College

Men's Soccer: Pirates lose lead late, fall to Long Beach City

Friday, September 11, 2009

COSTA MESA -- With a one-goal lead and an extra player on the field, the Orange Coast College men's soccer team was its own worst enemy, allowing a pair of late goals and falling to visiting Long Beach City, 2-1, in nonconference action on Friday at the OCC Soccer Complex.

With just over 10 minutes left and Coast (3-2) holding a 1-0 lead, a LBCC player was given a red card for a foul near the inside of the scoring box. However, the referee ruled the foul to be outside the box, giving OCC only a free kick instead of a penalty kick.

That kick missed its target and the Vikings (2-2) marched down the field and tied the game at the 82nd minute when Freddy Tapia took a feed from Danny Vasquez and ripped a shot into the back of the net.

The Pirates tried to keep the energized Vikings at bay the rest of the game, but in stoppage time, Freddy Tapia hit a shot that went off the top of the crossbar, but the ball bounced out to teammate Robert Tapia, who slam-dunked the ball into the net to give LBCC the lead for good.

OCC had one final opportunity when Takuma Hori was fouled inside the box. However, the referee again denied a penalty kick and instead, gave Coast an indirect free kick, which was blocked as time expired.

After a scoreless half, the Pirates took a 1-0 lead when Adrian Buonanoce sent a long pass into open space, where Takuma Hori out-ran a Vikings defender and the charging LBCC goalkeeper and sent a grounder into the open net midway through the second half.

But that was all Vikings' keeper Luis Romero would allow the rest of the way as he came up with six saves. OCC keeper Zakre Silva had 10 saves, including a couple of point-blank stops.

Coast returns to action on Tuesday at home against L.A. Harbor, beginning at 4 p.m.