Men’s Soccer: Second-half push not enough as LBCC ties Pasadena

Despite numerous scoring opportunities in the second half, the Long Beach City College men's soccer team played visiting Pasadena City College to a 1-1 draw in a South Coast Conference game on Tuesday.

With the tie, Long Beach's record moved to 3-3-4 overall and 0-2-1 in conference play.

Both squads scored first-half before an exciting final 45 minutes. German Alfaro got the Lancers on the board first when he broke free down the left sideline after a breakaway pass from Luis Flores. Alfaro cut through two LBCC defenders and slipped his shot past LBCC goalkeeper Luis Anguiano (Bellflower HS) to give PCC the 1-0 advantage in the 20th minute.

The Vikings answered with the equalizer in the 27th minute when freshman Erik Carbajal (Lakewood HS) bent a free kick from 30 yards out off the left goal post and by PCC goalie Gaetano Perez to tie the game 1-1.

Long Beach outshot Pasadena 5-4 over the first 45 minutes of play, but poured it on outshooting the Lancers 13-8 in the second half. The Vikings had three key scoring chances over the final five minutes of the game that they couldn't finish to pull out the win.

In the 85th minute, Alex Martinez' (Artesia HS) header on a Vikings' corner kick was cleared off the line by a PCC defender. Two minutes later, AJ Rocha's (Mater Dei HS) point-blank shot nailed the right post and moments before the final whistle in added time Martinez' shot in front of the sailed just above the crossbar.

Anguiano posted two saves for Long Beach while Perez had four saves for Pasadena (3-2-5, 2-0-1 SCC).

The Vikings will look to snap a three-game winless streak on Friday (Oct 11) when they travel to Mt. San Antonio College for a 6 p.m. conference game. 

Photo by Chris Ruiz