Men’s soccer: OCC loses season opener

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - Orange Coast College co-coach Mauricio Claure

predicted his freshman-heavy men’s soccer team would be inexperienced,

but exciting to watch and needless to say, the Pirates lived up to the

preseason hype Monday against visiting Cerritos.

Unfortunately, inexperience was a major factor as an early second-half

goal by Alex Araneda was the difference in a 1-0 loss for the Pirates in

both teams’ season opener.

“We just fell asleep on the play,” Claure said of the goal. “It was a

well-placed goal, but the play should have never even happened.

Especially in the first minute of the second half.”

The play leading up to the goal seemed innocent enough as both teams

were vying for possession in the Pirates end of the field.

Araneda controlled the ball to the left of goalkeeper Carlos Loza and

scored in the upper-right portion of the goal from around 16 yards out,

just out of Loza’s outstretched fingers.

Araneda’s goal spoiled what was a solid effort by the sophomore goalie

from Costa Mesa High, who had 10 saves in the game, some of the

point-blank variety.

“Carlos has to play to that level for us to be successful,” Claure

said. “He’s got all the physical tools, but his communication still needs

some work. To get the most out of your offense and defense, it starts

with goalkeeping and we have a good one here.”

Season-opening jitters may have gotten the best of the Pirates as

mistakes on repeated scoring chances proved costly.

“We may have been trying to do too much out there,” Claure said. “We

would do certain things right, but when it came down to taking that shot

on goal, or making the correct pass, we seemed to become tentative.”

On the positive side, the Pirates’ condition is definitely not in

question as they outhustled Cerritos to most of the loose balls in the

second half, causing numerous corner kicks and constant play in the

Falcons’ zone.

“Whatever problems we may have with our lack of experience, will be

made up with our endurance and hustle,” Claure said. “We’ll be all right;

we just have to fine tune the machine a little and get that experience we

need. That’s why we set up our nonconference the way we did with three

tough games in a row.”

Next up for the Pirates is Rio Hondo today, followed by Long Beach

City on Wednesday. Both games are at OCC and both will start at 3 p.m.

“We’re gonna have to step it up a couple of notches for Tuesday,”

Claure said. “Rio Hondo is a tough club to go up against.”