Coast men, women win

Orange Coast College was a 1-0 winner at Riverside in men’s soccer

Friday, and the Pirates’ women’s team buried visiting Irvine Valley, 5-1,

also in an OEC contest.

Coast’s men stretched their unbeaten streak to four games with the

victory and are now 4-4-1, 1-0 in the OEC, thanks to the scoring of Dante

Zena, who scored off a pass from Ryan Holt.

Zena now has a team-high six goals and they’ve come at the right time.

Coast is 4-5-1 when he scores, 0-3-1 when he doesn’t.

Pirate keeper, Joey Balbas had four saves.

“They had a couple of chances, but we kept them from scoring,” said

OCC Coach Laird Hayes. “‘I’m glad we were able to come away with a win

and get three points in the standings.

Riverside falls to 2-2-2 and 0-1 in the OEC.

While the men’s game was a nail-biter, the women’s game was a blowout

as Coast scored four goals in the second half to snap a 1-1 halftime

situation.

After missing their first 12 shots on goal and falling behind, 1-0,

the Pirates blitzed Irvine Valley behind the scoring of Amber Blake,

Corona del Mar High product Jaycee Mahler (twice), Marissa McGregor and

Nikki Saenz.

Blake’s goal off an assist from McGregor tied it in the 42nd minute,

and Mahler followed in the 58th minute with an assist from Estancia High

product Lauren Cassity.

McGregor followed up three minutes later with a goal off an assist

from Alicia Santiago, and 10 minutes later Mahler, with a McGregor

assist, sent her second shot home.

Coast dominated, even when it was trailing. The Pirates outshot Irvine

Valley, 23-2. Coast goalie Laurie Perkins had just one save.

Mahler now has 13 goals and has scored in five of Coast’s last six

games. She has five multi-goal games.

OCC improves to 8-3, 4-1 in the OEC. Irvine Valley falls to 5-7-1,

2-2-1.