Road woes continue for OCSC.
Orange County SC defender Walker Hume. | Photo courtesy of Orange County SC/Liza Rosales
Tacoma, Wash., Aug. 9 - Orange County Soccer Club traveled up the coast to face Tacoma Defiance after being off for a week. OCSC had been playing better before their break and they were hoping to continue that run on the road. It started about as well as they could have hoped for.
After a couple of good attacks into the Defiance half of the field, Darwin Jones finally broke through the Tacoma defense in the 11th minute. He kept holding the ball and pushing the back line back, and then he quickly sent a ball over to Michael Seaton who had an easy tap in with no Defiance player anywhere near him.
The 19th minute saw Aaron Cervantes show off why he got called up to the U-17 Men’s National Team camp last week. The ball found its way across the face of goal, and Cervantes moved quickly to his left to make a stunning save to keep OCSC up a goal.
Seaton was very close to getting his second in the 30th minute when he played a ball down after Tacoma keeper Bryan Meredith misplayed it. He had a great first touch to bring the ball down, but he got underneath the ball and put it just over the crossbar.
Later in the first half, Tacoma went on an extended run of good play. They had two great looks at goal, but put both shots wide. They finally found their first in the 43rd minute. OCSC couldn’t manage to get the ball cleared and the ball fell straight to Shandon Hopeau, who quickly put it by Cervantes to bring the score level going into the half.
Unfortunately, the second half did not start the way OCSC wanted it to. In the 52nd minute after a corner kick, Marlon Vargas found the ball after a miscommunication and he managed to get it on target. Cervantes did all he could, but it bounced off and over him and into the goal.
It was a frustrating night that saw their road woes continue, as OCSC was not able to connect on multiple second half chances. Harry Forrester was unlucky to have a shot deflected, but the final pass for OC never materialized. A game where close was not close enough.
Orange County returns with home next Saturday to take on the Las Vegas Lights. Kick-off is at 7:00pm at Championship Park at the Orange County Great Park.
Scoring:
11’: Michael Seaton (Darwin Jones)
43’: Shandon Hopeau (Joshua Atencio)
52’: Marlon Vargas
Discipline:
23’: Michael Orozco (Yellow)
44’: Aodhan Quinn (Yellow)
45’: Aleks Berkolds (Yellow)
47’: Leonardo (Yellow)
55’: Marlon Vargas (Yellow)
61’: Nicholas Hinds (Yellow)
89’: Michael Seaton (Yellow)