Men's Soccer: Vikings get offensive in 5-2 win over Compton

Freshman forward Tim Harty (pictured) scored a pair of goals and sophomore forward Jessie Aguirre had a goal and two assists to lead the Long Beach City College men's soccer team to a 5-2 South Coast Conference win over visiting El Camino College Compton Center on Friday at LBCC.

With the win, Long Beach improved to 6-5-5 overall and 3-4-3 in the SCC while Compton dropped to 0-12-3 and 0-8-2 in conference play.

The first half of the contest was an offensive shootout as LBCC totaled 10 shots to Compton's seven. Long Beach got first-half goals from Andres Montes (3^rd minute) and Robert Burgos (28^th minute) while Compton's Adrian Robles (4^th minute) and Jesus Mejia (38^th minute) found the back of the net.

But the Vikings took over in the second half with three unanswered goals. Long Beach outshot Compton in the second half by an 11-3 margin. LBCC wasted little time in retaking the lead when Aguirre took a pass from Christian Gonzalez for a breakaway goal in the 46^th minute.

Long Beach poured it on when Harty broke free for his two breakaway goals in the 64^th and 87^th minutes to seal the win.

Freshman goalkeeper Jesus Gutierrez posted five saves for the Vikings.

According to co-head coach Cameron Beaulac, the key to the second half was controlling the midfield.

"Tiago (Morais) did an excellent job in the second half controlling the midfield and the tempo of our offense," Beaulac said.

For Compton, goalkeeper Issac Romero posted eight saves.

Long Beach returns to action on Tuesday (Nov 1) when they travel to face rival Cerritos College in a 1 pm conference game.

Photo: Tim Harty dribbles past a Compton defender in Friday's win. (Photo by Chris Ruiz)