Pirates shut out Tigers to maintain win streak
COSTA MESA -- After a frustrating first half of play on Tuesday, the Orange Coast College men's soccer team kept its foot on the gas pedal and defeated visiting Riverside City College, 3-0, in an Orange Empire Conference matchup at the OCC Soccer Complex.
The Pirates (9-6, 5-4 in OEC) sent wave after wave of offensive opportunities towards the Tigers (4-7-3, 3-5-1) but all they could tally on the scoreboard was a rebound goal by Chase Nugent off of a shot sent by Baji Chela in the 13th minute, putting Coast up 1-0.
From there RCC goalkeeper Richard Sepulveda created a season's worth of highlight reel saves in the first half. Coast outshot Riverside 16-3 in the first half and had six or seven point-blank scoring opportunities, but Sepulveda (15 saves total, 12 in the first half) was up to the test.
In the 43rd minute, OCC was awarded a penalty kick, but Sepulveda not only stopped the attempt, another point-blank shot quickly followed, but the freshman keeper kept it out of the goal.
In the second half, the Pirates again kept the pressure on and finally, in the 52nd minute, a long pass from Takuma Hori found the foot of Nugent, who went right, cut back left and ripped a perfect shot into the lower-right corner of the goal to give Coast some much-needed breathing room.
In the 78th minute some fancy footwork by Thales Serra enabled the freshman midfielder to dribble through three defenders before he ripped a shot past Sepulveda for a 3-0 Pirate lead.
That would be more than enough offense for OCC goalkeeper Tyler Folkins, who stopped six shots and posted his third straight shutout.
