Community college men’s soccer: Pirates hang on for win over FCC

COSTA MESA - The Orange Coast College men’s soccer team picked the

right time to snap out of its home scoring slump Tuesday, while hosting

Orange Empire Conference foe Fullerton.

The Pirates, who entered the matchup having scored just once in their

prior 501 minutes at home, tallied four goals for a 4-3 win in the

regular-season finale for both teams.

OCC (11-8-3, 8-4-2 in the OEC) finished the season third in the

conference with 26 points, one point behind second-place Fullerton. Santa

Ana won the OEC title.

The Pirates built a 4-1 lead and held off the Hornets’ late rally.

After cutting the gap to one, Fullerton (10-7-5, 8-3-3) had chances to

tie, but Coast goalie Joey Balbas came up big, recording three of his

seven saves in the final four minutes.

Ryan Holt, Ryan Lancaster and Chris Coburn scored a goal each to give

the Pirates a 3-0 lead. Marco Santangelo made what proved to be a crucial

goal in the 60th minute. Dante Zena, Sean Ganey, Balbas and Stanton Duke

each had an assist for OCC.

Both teams will likely return to action Tuesday in the first round of

the Southern California Regional Playoffs.