Hopes that Moorpark would finish the final home game of the 2015 men’s soccer season on a high note were dashed when College of the Canyons scored three goals in the second half to win 4-0 at the Raiders Pitch on Tuesday.
The Raiders dominated possession in the first half. Moorpark’s Alvaro Zambrano came close when his shot from close range brought a roar from the partisan onlookers who thought he scored when he hit the outside of the side netting.
Freshman defender Karl Lind’s head injury in the 26th minute drove him from the game and forced Moorpark to make defensive adjustments that affected the outcome in the second half.
“Karl went up for a head, got hit pretty hard, and was feeling dizzy,” said sophomore Nicholas Hughes. “I was put in as center back in a riskier 3-5-2 formation. That’s one less defender than normal instead of the [usual] 4-4-2.”
The Cougars became more assertive as the game wore on and scored from a penalty kick awarded just inside the 18 yard box in the 38th minute. Goalkeeper Daniel Moreno got his hand on Eduardo Ojeda’s hard shot into the lower left-hand corner, but couldn’t keep the ball from crossing the line.
“The second they got that penalty, it was heads down,” said sophomore striker Krikor Tashejian. “Bad luck, it always strikes. It’s Murphy’s Law. We were in it the game until the penalty. That was exactly the turning point.”
Moreno’s defensive heroics once again kept the Raiders in the game as he used his height to control the aerial battle in the penalty area. Barking orders at his troops, he took command of a depleted back line that became fatigued in the second half.
“Disappointing,” was freshman Sam Curren’s one word response to the result. “They had about five chances and scored on four of them.”
Missing both Lind and Cole Hajdu, who didn’t play due to injury, the Raiders defense came under increasing pressure in the second half. Ojeda scored his second goal with a perfectly timed curling shot over Moreno’s outstretched fingertips into the roof of the net to make the score 2-0 in the 53rd minute.
“Losing our center back affected the whole game because we had to drop the center-mid back to center back to [replace him],” said freshman midfielder Javier Hernandez.
The Cougars prowled through an increasingly ragged Raiders back line, and was rewarded again in the 77th minute when forward Andy Ruiz scored from close range to put the game beyond reach. Oscar Sanchez put the icing on the cake in stoppage to complete the rout 4-0.
“I’m looking forward to Friday and trying to get a win against Citrus,” said freshman Nate Johnson. “We can definitely pick up some wins on the road [during] the rest of our schedule.”
The Raiders are hoping for a change of fortune when they travel to Citrus College for the second leg of its Western State Conference matchup on Friday, Oct. 30 at 2 p.m.
