By Stephanie Guevara
Defensive mistakes and frustration continued to hold men’s soccer back in Friday’s game, resulting in a 3-2 loss against Pasadena City College at Weingart Stadium.
East Los Angeles College started the game offensively strong, having two shots on goal in the first eight minutes.
Not scoring in key moments, however, backfired on the team.
In the 18th minute of the game, PCC freshman midfielder Romio Sislian scored from outside the goalkeeper’s box.
The shot went over ELAC sophomore Joshua Moreno’s hand.
“To me it felt like he got lucky because it went in between two players. When I stepped forward, I thought the forward was going to get control of the ball instead of hitting it. I thought he was going to stop it. That’s why I took a step forward,” Moreno said.
After PCC scored, ELAC increased its offense with sophomore Valentin Mercado as the predominant attacker.
As ELAC attacked PCC, Mercado took the ball in the right wing and sent an aerial pass to the goalkeeper’s box where sophomore midfielder William Morse scored the Huskies’ first goal.
“In the first half we kind of started on the left foot. It took us a while to get to the rhythm. They were beating us on counters and taking more advantage of our open spaces,” ELAC sophomore winger Luis Alvarado said.
“It took us a while to realize it, but we were able to catch them by the end of the first half.”
The Huskies finished strong in the first half.
Sophomore forward Edward Robles almost put ELAC ahead on the score with a shot on goal that barely missed the outside of the goal net.
At the start of the second half, ELAC’s defense was put to the test as PCC forwards had several encounters with Moreno.
“We had a lot of opportunities and we capitalized on some. I give credit to the goalkeeper because he had a lot of good saves. It just goes back and forth,” PCC head coach Gerry Mora said.
In the 58th minute, PCC freshman midfielder surpassed the ELAC defense, leaving him one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but Moreno blocked the shot.
In one of ELAC’s defensive lapses, Moreno and freshman defender Guillermo Guzman had to correct a defensive error by sliding on PCC sophomore midfielder Pablo Buenrostro to stop him from scoring.
As a result, Guzman committed a penalty. Buenrostro scored and PCC went up 2-1.
“Pasadena just wanted it a little more than us. The guys got a little comfortable, I guess, after having a big win against Rio Hondo,” ELAC assistant coach Ricardo Raygoza said.
“After beating PCC in the last game, maybe they thought it was going to be less tough, but that wasn’t the case.”
ELAC continued to commit unnecessary fouls that hurt them.
In minute 83, ELAC Guzman committed a foul that resulted in a free kick for PCC.
PCC freshman forward Anthony Guzman shot it directly to goal and scored.
“Most of the time it’s out of frustration,” Alvarez said, referring to the unnecessary fouls.
“Sometimes it’s not even a foul, but the ref approaches it as a hit. Usually they are dumb mistakes, but it happens. It’s frustrating after you’re losing by one or two and you’re trying to get back,” he said.
During the last minutes of the game, Alvarado took the ball in the right wing and passed it to Robles, where he shot on goal.
The ball deflected off of a PCC defender, however, to score an own goal.
“I felt like the goal was forced. Thankfully, luck was on our side,” Alvarado said.
ELAC lost yesterday 3-2 at Chaffey College.
The Huskies final game of the season is on Friday against El Camino Compton College at home at 2 p.m.