Game Stats

November 9, 2007

Men’s Soccer:
LBCC closes regular season with 2-1 loss to Cerritos

The Long Beach City College men’s soccer team suffered a 2-1 South Coast Conference loss to rival Cerritos College on Friday in both teams’ regular season finale.

The loss ended the Vikings’ regular season with an 8-6-7 overall record and 5-5-4 mark in SCC play. Cerritos improved to 17-3-4 and 11-1-2 in conference action.

Despite the loss, Long Beach will likely be rated among the top 12 teams in Southern California and earn its fourth consecutive spot in the regional playoffs, which get underway next Saturday, November 17.

In today’s contest, LBCC took an early first-half lead before Cerritos rallied for two goals in the second to pull out the win.

The Vikings got on the board in the 20th minute. After a Cerritos corner kick, LBCC sophomore midfielder Hugo Ayala cleared the ball deep to midfield to sophomore forward Aaron Gutcher.

Gutcher sprinted by the lone defender and nailed his shot past charging Cerritos goalkeeper Diego Milan to give Long Beach the 1-0 advantage.

Gutcher nearly extended the Vikings’ lead in the 52nd minute. His header off a cross-pass from Ayala hit the crossbar and bounced out.

Cerritos got the equalizer in the 57th minute. After Norm Mariscal’s shot was deflected by LBCC goalkeeper Eder Garcia, Bryan Mejia executed a bicycle-kick on the loss ball and placed it just over Garcia for the goal.

And in the 83rd minute, Cerritos scored the eventual game-winner. Michael Paz broke free up the middle on a breakaway pass from Alex Muñoz and beat Garcia with his shot to give the Falcons the win.

Garcia posted eight saves in goal for Long Beach, while Milan was credited with three saves for Cerritos.

Playoff seedings for the Southern California regional playoffs will be announced next week.