Pirates rout Dons 5-1
COSTA MESA -- The message was sent to the players of the Orange Coast College men's soccer team after the first round of Orange Empire Conference play and thus far, the Pirates have responded in a big way -- but nothing as big as Tuesday's 5-1 win against first-place Santa Ana at the OCC Soccer Complex.
Sitting just 2-4 near the end of the first round of OEC play, the Pirates have since ripped off four straight wins, including victories at Irvine Valley on Friday and Tuesday's win against the 17-time conference champs.
"Our guys have responded to the challenge and their overall play has really elevated," OCC assistant coach Glenn Strachan said. "Especially our last two games with IVC and (Santa Ana). We're playing our best soccer at the right time. We just need to keep things going."
Both teams came out flying early on, but it was the Pirates (11-6 overall, 7-4 in OEC) who opened the scoring first. In the fifth minute, Chase Nugent took the ball down the right, fought off a defender and fed a nice pass to Takuma Hori, who ripped a shot into the upper-right corner of the goal, putting Coast up 1-0.
Just over 10 minutes later, Jose Rodriguez used the same strong moves with the ball before feeding Hori for his second goal of the game and suddenly, it was 2-0, Pirates.
Playing into a mild wind didn't affect the play of the Pirates, who matched the Dons (11-4-3, 8-2-1 in OEC) in shots on goal (9-9), but carried a higher number of quality scoring chances in the first half (6-2).
In the 30th minute, another aggressive run by Rodriguez was rewarded when his shot deflected off of Santa Ana goalkeeper Jose Sosa and onto the diving head of Nugent, who buried his opportunity and gave Coast a surprising 3-0 advantage at the half.
Things got a bit tense on the field as the Dons tried to climb back into the match with their relentless aggressive style, but the Pirates maintained as much poise as possible and maintained a comfortable lead throughout the match. In all, Five players received yellow cards (three for OCC, two for SAC) and one Don was ejected midway through the second half.
In the 57th minute, Coast grabbed a 4-0 lead when Gonzalez fed a corner kick through the Dons defense and onto the foot of Antonio Gonzalez, who ripped a shot past backup goalkeeper Ricardo Mora.
Santa Ana found the back of the net in the 65th minute when a corner kick by Amos De La Paz slipped off of the hands of OCC goalkeeper Tyler Folkins and deflected right to Briant Rodelo for an empty-net goal, cutting the Pirate lead to 4-1.
But that would be the lone highlight of the day for the Dons as Patrik Haley closed out the scoring in the 85th minute with a goal off of a pass from teammate Matthew Stickler.
Folkins finished with eight saves for the Pirates. Sosa had two saves in the first half, while Mora finished with four saves in the second half for Santa Ana.
