By Jonathan Castro
The men’s soccer team earned their third conference loss of the season, 2-1 against host Cerritos College, last Friday, Oct. 5 and sank to the bottom of the South Coast Conference standings.
The Huskies were trying to bounce back from their second conference loss last week against the No. 2-ranked Mt. San Antonio College Mounties.
ELAC came out and stayed back defensively throughout most of the first half denying a very strong offensive Cerritos attack.
“Our tactic was to be defensive all game and we definitely succeeded in doing that for 75-80 minutes,” Husky David Farias said.
About five minutes before the half ended, Husky defender Carlos del Campo was booked with a yellow card after a sliding tackle over one of the Falcons.
The first goal for Cerritos came during the 58th minute, when Falcon Mario Guerrero took a free kick and the ball landed in Daniel Garcia’s feet to defeat ELAC’s goalkeeper Juan Escobar, scoring his third goal of the season.
ELAC counterattacked and scored about five minutes later. Husky Daniel Llanos received a pass and placed the ball in the opposite side of the net, scoring his third goal of the season.
“They (the Falcons) put in a goal on a free kick so we had to change tactics which worked because we tied the game within five minutes,” Farias said.
Both teams were looking to score when Cerrito’s Garcia took a pass down the sideline and overpowered ELAC’s defense to go one-on-one with goalkeeper Escobar.
Garcia filtered the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs to score the game winning goal for the Falcons.
ELAC tried to get tie the score. About five minutes before the end of the game, Husky del Campo received another yellow card, which sent him off the game.
Something that left doubt in ELAC Head Coach Eddie Flores was the controversial double yellow card to defender del Campo, which ended up affecting them in having a possibility of coming away with a victory.
“It was one of the best performances we have had and our game plan worked for 85 minutes. I thought that this was some of the most controversial officiating I had witnessed in a long time, but we have to keep playing since we’re on the road,” Flores said.
The Huskies now stands 1-3 in conference play, 3-4-4 overall.
“We just have to be more consistent and be able to finish the game strong. To be honest, we are a great team no doubt about it. We just have to finish the game strong and we’ll be a championship caliber team,” Farias said.
“We are in a deep hole with the record we have, but all we need is a win to get the momentum and confidence going.”
ELAC will face El Camino College on the road Friday, Oct. 12 at 4 p.m.