A solid 8.5/10 performance on the road against Monterey Bay led Orange County to just their second all time win at Cardinale Stadium and saw their unbeaten run in the league reach 8 games. Just what makes Orange County such a hard team to beat in 2026 is they are able to gain points in a myriad of different ways. They can win games with both their offense or their defense. I have in the past been somewhat critical of Danny Stone for his record away from home but this year has put that to doubt with Orange County now having five away wins. That total has already surpassed both totals from 2024 and 2025 (2024: 4-8-5, 2025: 2-9-4 (WLD)). Perhaps even more important for Orange County is that this match saw the return of Yaniv Bazini, Mouhamadou War and Ryan Doghman who all had big impacts on the 2-1 win.
This is the beginning of the latter half of the regular season for Orange County who still see themselves on top of the Western Conference. This was their last away game for awhile as the club will begin a four week stretch of home games which will be very much deserved. There are still a couple of storylines surrounding Orange County that were reinforced with the game against Monterey.
FIRST HALF
The lineup fielded for Orange County post-bye week was about what we expected with a handful of players returning from injury. Alex Rando continues his games-started streak in the league. The backline in front of him would also see a couple of wrinkles. Tom Brewitt and Garrison Tubbs are the most experienced center back pairing but they would get flanked on either side with Nico Benalcazar and Nicola Ciotta. If Orange County SC is a club that puts a heavy emphasis on its youth players, Nicola Ciotta could be one that should get the recognition soon. He put in another very good performance at right back. The midfield in front of them which has remained roughly untouched would remain the same with Hegardt, Sylla, Solis and Kelly. This third of the field has been the best all season from an offensive standpoint so no need to fix it. The two strikes up top would be Lyam MacKinnon and Yaniv Bazini with the latter returning from injury.
This lineup was playing a last place Monterey Bay side that has been sneakily okay at home. Monterey Bay should of opened the scoring in the second minute of the match but the MBFC forward skied a shot that looked harder to miss. Away games regardless of opponent typically means that Orange County will likely have to defend a lot in the first 20 minutes of the game. This game would be no different. Alex Rando would have to make his first big save of the game off a deflected header within the opening 10 minutes of the game and OC could not gain possession quite yet.
Then it would be Orange County that would have a handful of counter attacking chances with 3 different opportunities all in the first half. All three opportunities were very creative ones too, facilitated by good build up play from the midfielders and wingers. Ousmane Sylla would get the first one after a good pass from MacKinnon but his effort was hit wide on the near post. The second great chance would fall to MacKinnon on a feed from Sylla that saw him draw in 3 defenders to him before releasing it. MacKinnon would hit it right at the keeper. The third and perhaps best chance would again find MacKinnon on a one on one with the keeper who makes a good save. Orange County should of easily been up 3 goals to this point. For a team that has had a very high conversion rate this was uncharacteristic for both Sylla and MacKinnon. Both teams in the first half had trouble putting good shots on target but it would not bite Orange County later. The first half would end 0-0.
SECOND HALF
The second half would see the same lineup come on and Danny Stone must of talked about needing to score goals to win games because after 45 minutes of not converting their chances, Tom Brewitt wasted no time getting the first goal of the match. In the 48th minute on a free kick into the Monterey Box, the ball would deflect off a defender and fall to an unmarked Brewitt. The centerback by nature would chest the ball down and hit a half volley all in one motion to fire it past the Monterey keeper near post to put OC up 1-0. This was Brewitt’s first regular season goal and second overall in 2026. It would be another OC goal scored by a non-forward as well. One goal is a good start but scoring two is even better and Nicola Ciotta would ensure that. While it would not be credited to Nicola, it was the right back that would apply pressure on the Monterey backline and force a bad turnover in the box that Nicola would take and put the ball in a dangerous spot that would deflect in off a Monterey leg. The goal looked like it would be by Bazini which is where Ciotta intended to go with the pass but either way OC had gotten the all-important second goal and it came just 4 minutes after the first.
After this point Orange County would start to get some pushback from Monterey Bay. The hosts would make a plethora of changes early in the half while Orange County would remain content with the XI out there. The OC defense would really do a good job of keeping the ball outside of their box and limiting Monterey to simply shoot from outside. Orange County unfortunately have not historically been known in recent memory for holding onto leads. The bend but don't break defensive mentality has worked before in professional soccer when in short stretches. Orange County have been known to really bunker down quite early in games and this was game while not the most egregious, did see OC tend to play further back. The defensive subs were indicative of this with OC sometimes playing a back five. This defense would finally buckle in the 88th minute with OC getting beat by a perfect through ball from the opposite end of the pitch that would spurn a one on one opportunity. Ilijah Paul would slot it past Alex Rando to spoil his shutout bid. Once the ball hit the back of the net, it was very obvious that Orange County was nowhere close to a relaxing end to the game.
Not even a minute later, a turnover in OC’s own defensive half lead to a cross into the box that found a Monterey Bay head. But Alex Rando would make easily his best stop of the night with a sprawling fingertip save to his lower right. He even had the peace of mind to smother the rebound on the attackers weak side. Monterey Bay would attempt some more outside shots but none came close to being dangerous. After four minutes of stoppage time had passed the match would end with OC winning 2-1.
OVERVIEW
With the amount of chances that both teams got, the fact that only 3 goals were scored in this game is quite surprising. On a better day for both teams this match could have easily ended up 4-3 in Orange County’s favor. Monterey Bay may have had more shots in the game but the quality of those shots were lacking. Regardless of soccer philosophy, Orange County is not an easy team to beat. There are only a handful of games that I can say Orange County really played a 10/10 game (San Antonio, Tulsa) but yet Orange County continues to find ways to win. Alex Rando can steal a game if he needs to. The offense can score 3 or 4 goals which has happened thrice this season. There was a point early in the year when it was the defense that was winning games. But you are just as good as your next game and Orange County cannot falter too much, especially with some tough opponents coming to town in August.
This team knows how to win games.
ed: Don’t miss the live show Tuesday for more talk about this match and the upcoming match against El Paso Locomotive at The Champ.