September 4, 2007

Men’s Soccer:
Vikings play Fullerton to scoreless draw in home opener

The Long Beach City College soccer team opened its 2007 home schedule with a 0-0 non-conference tie to visiting Fullerton College on Tuesday.

The draw moved both the Vikings’ and Fullerton’s record to 1-0-2 early in the season.

Fullerton was forced to play short-handed for almost the entire match as a Hornet defender was issued a red card in the 15th minute of the contest.

Despite being one man down, Fullerton came up with big plays to keep a surging LBCC offense of the scoreboard.

The Vikings had two big scoring chances in the second half but were turned away.

In the 63rd minute, freshman midfielder Albert Jimenez chipped his breakaway shot over charging Fullerton goalkeeper Cesar Ortega, but his shot sailed just above the crossbar.

Long Beach’s best scoring opportunity came late in the 85th minute. After a cleared corner kick, freshman defender Marc Elsaesser’s open-goal shot was knocked away at the goal line by Fullerton defender Julio Melgoza to preserve the shutout.

The Vikings outshot Fullerton by a 14-5 margin. Ortega posted six saves for the Hornets, while LBCC freshman Eder Garcia posted one first-half save and freshman Chris DeWalt posted two saves in the second.

“I was very pleased with our defensive effort,” said Long Beach co-head coach Cameron Beaulac. “We got a strong game from four freshman defenders and our two freshmen goalies.”

“We just didn’t convert on our scoring opportunities,” he added. “Fullerton also made some big stops when they had to.”

The Vikings return to action on Friday (Sep 7) when they travel to Orange Coast College for a 4 pm non-conference game.