By Noe Ortega
Men’s soccer tied 4-4 with a last-minute goal by freshman defender Salvador Alvarez on Friday in a South Coast Conference-North match at home against Chaffey College.
In minute 92, East Los Angeles College had a corner kick where freshman Chaffey goalkeeper Alex Fonseca misplayed the ball, and it slipped past the defense, leaving Alvarez to score.
“We came out over-confident. We were on a winning streak and we knew this team wasn’t as great and we let that get in our heads and I think that’s what threw us off our game, said ELAC sophomore forward Edward Robles.
ELAC made substitutions in the second half.
Switching out freshman midfielder William Morse, Alvarez and freshman midfielder Edson Jimenez for freshman midfielder Gustavo Silva, sophomore midfielder Luis Alvarado and sophomore defender Agustin Barros, helped control the midfield .
“At the end, we made some changes, some adjustments. We played well enough to get the tie, and we were lucky enough to come back from a two-goal deficit.
At the end of the day we learned from this,” said ELAC head coach Eddie Flores.
Chaffey scored its four goals in the first half.
ELAC was chasing the game since the minute six, when Chaffey sophomore defender Brian Luna scored a wide-open header off an assist from freshman forward Gustavo Chavez.
Two minutes later, Chaffey freshman defender Ivan Macias scored the second goal of the game with a quick corner by freshman forward Oscar Casillas. It left ELAC ‘s defense standing still.
“You got to believe you can win the game if not, then you’re just going to come out and go through the motions. If you really believe that you can pull this off, than our chances are greater,” said Assistant Coach Ricardo Raygoza.
Robles scored for the Huskies in minute 15 of the game after taking on two Chaffey defenders and beating the goalkeeper to cut the lead in half.
Chaffey sophomore forward Adrian Moreno quickly turned it back to a two-goal lead after receiving a ball in the penalty box and making space to shoot in the top right corner, making the score 3-1 in minute 17 of the game.
Robles scored his second goal of the game in minute 34 off a deflection from a shot on the edge of the penalty box, that Chaffey goal keeper couldn’t save, to make it 3-2.
Right before the first half ended, Chaffey forward Casillas took on two ELAC defenders and made room to shoot and score a near-post goal to make it 4-2.
After ELAC freshman goalkeeper Luis Angel Alvarez had a goal kick in minute 62, Salvador Alvarez out jumped Chaffeys midfield to give Robles a one on one.
Robles was taken down and the referee awarded ELAC a penalty kick.
ELAC players complained to the referee after a controversial call to not give Chaffey goalkeeper a red card for being the last man to take down Robles.
Sophomore defender Barros stepped up to take the penalty and scored to make it 4-3 in Chaffey’s favor.
“Unfortunately to us, and I think to everyone, it’s a red card. The referees dictate a bit differently with their rules, but it’s pretty obvious that it was a red card,” said Raygoza.
ELAC is now 2-1-1 in the SCC-North match and its next game will be this Friday at Los Angeles Harbor College at 4 pm.