Community college men’s soccer: Pirates snap scoring slump in win
COSTA MESA - Chris Coburn scored his first collegiate goal to lead
the Orange Coast College men’s soccer team to a 1-0 Orange Empire
Conference win over visiting Golden West Tuesday.
Coburn’s goal snapped the Pirates’ month-long home scoring drought and
completed a season sweep of the Rustlers. Coast won 2-1 at Golden West Oct. 5.
With just 90 seconds left in the first half, Coburn connected on his
goal, which was the first goal at home by the Pirates since the first
half of a Sept. 25 contest against Santiago Canyon. The slump spanned 455
minutes of game time. Ryan Holt picked up his third assist of the season
on Coburn’s goal.
As has been the case for most of the season, Coast played solid
defensively and controlled the game, but struggled to finish on scoring
chances. Despite the close score, the Pirates (10-7-3, 7-3-2 in the OEC)
were rarely in danger and outshot Golden West, 17-3.
The Rustlers (3-12-4, 2-7-3) nearly tied the game late, sending a high
shot into a crowd of attackers in the 89th minute. However, Pirate goalie
Joey Balbas made a leaping save in a crowd of traffic to preserve his
fifth shutout in the past six games. He has nine shutouts this season and
aside from a pair of penalty kicks, he’s yielded just one score in the
past 707 minutes of game time and only two in the past 800. He finished
with two saves against the Rustlers.
Coast has lost just three of its past 15 games and remains very much
alive in the battle for second place in the OEC.
The third-place Pirates picked up three points in the standings with
the win to move just one behind of Fullerton, which fell 7-0 at home to
Santa Ana.
Coast and Fullerton will meet in the regular-season finale Tuesday at
Coast at 3 p.m. Before that game, the Pirates will play at Santa Ana
Friday at 3 p.m.
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