Orange Coast edges Hawks

Bryce Alderton

A win maintaining position at the top of the Orange Empire Conference

standings Friday was hardly cause for celebration for the host Orange

Coast College men’s soccer team after a postgame talk by Coach Jason

Smith.

The Pirates eked out a 3-2 win over Santiago Canyon, but the score

and the level of play could have been much higher, Smith told the

team huddled around him after the final whistle sounded.

“We were our own worst enemy,” Smith said. “Defensively we were

sloppy, we gave the ball away and were casual out there. We had

opportunities early to get up by two or three goals. It all came down

to execution.”

The Pirates (8-3-1, 5-1-1 in the OEC) spent most of the afternoon

in the Hawks’ zone, pelting goalkeeper Brad Drake with 15 shots.

Drake regularly dove to his right and left to bat balls down with two

hands and often ran out 20 yards to deter Coast attackers.

Drake and his teammates didn’t do enough to stop the Marco

Santangelo-Jose Serpas connection. Santangelo, playing his first game

as an outside midfielder this season, fed Serpas for two second-half

goals that gave Coast a 3-1 lead with nine minutes left.

Both times Santangelo (Costa Mesa High), normally a defender,

surged down the west sideline and fed the ball to an unguarded Serpas

(Newport Harbor High), who booted the ball to the right and left

corners on his respective scores.

“He is my buddy,” Santangelo said. “I heard [Serpas] call. He is

always in the middle, the same spot I expect him to be. He executed

and that made me happy.”

Santangelo echoed Smith’s thoughts about Coast’s performance

Friday.

“We should have destroyed them,” Santangelo said. “It starts with

practice. [Thursday] we had a terrible practice and it rubbed off in

[Friday’s] game. We weren’t passing or talking. We took for granted

that we were going to win.”

Coast and Irvine Valley remained in a tie for first place in the

conference with wins Friday. Fullerton played at Golden West Friday

night with a chance to make it a three-team tie at the top. Coast

faces host Cypress Wednesday and travels to IVC Friday.

The Pirates played well for a 20-minute stretch in the middle of

the first 45-minute half after beginning sluggishly, Smith said.

Sophomore defender John Gauthier had a header saved by Drake and

attempted to curl in another ball that hit the side of the net while

Newport Harbor product Eric Nutter received a pass from Santangelo

and booted it from six yards out only to have the goalkeeper dive to

his left to knock down the shot.

Sophomore midfielder Matt Fennell sped around two defenders and

cut to the center -- 10 yards from the goal -- but Drake denied both

of his kicks minutes later in the half.

But Fennell would not be outdone.

He scored the game’s first goal in the 31st minute when freshman

forward Eli Solis (Costa Mesa High) eluded two defenders and found

Fennell with a cross that the Mater Dei graduate knocked between

Drake and the right post.

Coast’s shots dwindled as the second half progressed, giving the

defense all it could handle.

Santiago Canyon’s Scott Stenovich raced to the east corner of the

Coast box and crossed to Mario Rivera, who headed the ball in the net

with one minute to go to cut OCC’s lead to 3-2.

The Hawks’ Ken Gray booted a free kick from 30 yards out that was

knocked down and the Pirates escaped.

“Team defense was good,” said Smith, a defender on Coast’s 1989

state championship team and current coach of Fountain Valley’s boys

team. Sophomore Steve Vellanoweth, freshman Adam Uhl, Joel Sotolongo

and Will Sanchez turned away several Santiago Canyon (6-5-1, 3-4)

chances in front of Spears.

“We have to come together as a team and step up now,” Smith said.