Men's soccer remains undefeated

The Santa Monica College men’s soccer team won their second game of the season  against the College of the Desert 3-1 on Sept. 4. The first half began with aggressive play from both sides including pushing, shoving and grabbing that lead to a yellow card being drawn against SMC.

The Corsairs drew first in the 12th minute of the first half, as the Corsairs scored off a goal from midfielder Eric Fakhourian.

The goal was quickly followed up by another SMC goal, by midfielder and forward Luis Fuentes, assisted by midfielder and forward Luis Sanchez.

The Corsairs suffered a brief scare late in the first half when Fakhourian went down with an injury, but he was ultimately able to walk it off.

“I think that we came out and started really strong to begin the game,” said SMC head coach Tim Pierce. “We had a good performance right out of the gate, and scored some beautiful goals right away.”

The Corsairs allowed a goal near the end of the first half, when College of the Desert’s Alberto Villa scored, bringing the game to 2-1 with SMC leading. The Corsairs also picked up their second yellow card, continuing the physicality shown early on.

The late goal scored by College of the Desert drew the ire of Pierce, who felt that his team had become complacent.

“I think we needed to stay more disciplined,” said Pierce. “Once the score became 2-0, we had them where we wanted them. We started over-dribbling, we stopped transition defense, and we allowed them to get a goal.”

The second half would follow with more aggressive play from both teams, as College of the Desert continued to battle but could not break through, due to the reinvigorated Corsair defense, and SMC’s goalie Kevin Alonzo who protected the net.

Late in the second half, Fuentes scored his second goal of the game, making the score 3-1 in favor of SMC, and putting away College of the Desert for good. Although he was pleased with the win, Pierce cautioned about the need to keep up the energy throughout the entire game.

“We’re on a winning streak and that’s great,” Pierce said. “We’re going to try to continue to win soccer games, but we have to play a complete game. Playing a full 90 minutes is tough. Sometimes guys can physically and mentally check out of games at times, and it’s a grind.”

The men's soccer team shut out Victor Valley in their next game on Friday, Sept. 7 by the score of 4-0, and tied Oxnard 2-2 on Tuesday, Sept. 11 to remain undefeated.