By Liliana Marquez
The men’s soccer team tied 1-1 against El Camino College Compton Center last Friday at the Murphy Family Field in Carson. For the first time in the last three seasons the Huskies did not score a win against Compton.
The Huskies haven’t won a game since October 19 when they defeated Long Beach City College at Weingart Stadium.
Jimmy Espinal who has been an outstanding player during his two seasons playing for ELAC, scored his first goal as a Husky a couple of minutes into the second half.
ELAC Assistant Coach Felipe Bernal was happy after Espinal’s first goal. “I was very happy and excited when he scored. I am glad for him because his hard work paid off,” Bernal said.
Espinal said that scoring was great for him even though the game ended in a draw.
“We got too confident and got a bad result. We could have done better. Scoring felt great, but it didn’t help us because we tied,” Espinal said.
ELAC’s goalkeeper Juan Escobar was caught off guard when Compton’s Miguel Padilla took advantage of a rebound to even the score.
With only ten men on the field, after Husky Jesus Mariscal received a red card for elbowing a Compton player, the Huskies managed to keep the score even throughout the second half.
Compton could not take advantage of being a man up and were left with their third conference tie and only one victory on the season.
The game against Compton was set to be an easy win. It was the sixth time they faced each other over the last three seasons. The Huskies had a 5-0 advantage having won all of the five previous games against Compton.
ELAC scored four goals, but three of them were disallowed due to offside calls by the referee.
The Huskies dominated the game having more ball possession and attacking more, but Compton’s defense stood its ground not allowing ELAC to extend the score.
“We dominated. We were doing a good job moving the ball around. The team was working really hard, but the red card had them go down psychologically,” Bernal said.
After Friday’s draw against Compton, ELAC stands 5-9-5 overall, 3-8-1 on conference.
ELAC will close the soccer season on the road against Los Angeles Harbor College Friday at 6 p.m. Harbor defeated ELAC 3-2 last month at Weingart Stadium.
The Huskies are still looking to finish the season strong despite losing the chance to advance to playoffs.
