Game Stats

October 13, 2006

Men’s Soccer:
Long Beach rally falls short, lose to Cerritos 2-1 at home

The Long Beach City College men’s soccer team suffered a 2-1 South Coast Conference loss to visiting Cerritos College on Friday. The Vikings tried to erase an early 2-0 deficit to the Falcons but couldn’t complete the comeback.

Cerritos jumped on the board first in the 6th minute. Midfielder Ivan Perez’ cross pass on a corner kick was deflected by LBCC sophomore goalie Brendon Welch (St. John Bosco HS). The ball landed at the feet of forward Brian Alvarez which he tapped in for the easy goal, the first of two on the day for Alvarez.

Five minutes later, Alvarez and the Falcons struck again. Midfielder Bryan Mejia led a long breakaway down the left sideline before he sent a cross pass to Alvarez in the middle. He finished the play for the goal and a 2-0 lead in the 11th minute.

The score remained 2-0 until midway in the second half. The Vikings offense finally connected for a goal in the 71st minute.

Freshman midfielder Chris Overton (Kennedy HS) fed freshman forward Aaron Gutcher (Mayfair HS) with a breakaway pass that he nailed past Cerritos goalie Miguel Lopez to cut the Falcons’ lead to 2-1.

But the Vikings would get no closer despite numerous close scoring chances during the final minutes of the contest.

Lopez posted 4 saves in goal for Cerritos (9-3-3, 3-1-2 SCC), while Welch also posted 4 saves for the Vikings.

The loss dropped LBCC to 9-2-2 overall and 4-2-0 in the SCC. The Vikings are back in action next Tuesday (Oct 17) when they host East L.A. College in a 4 pm conference game.