Orange Coast College

Men's Soccer: Pirates, Lasers battle to tie

Friday, October 30, 2009

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's soccer team competed to a 1-1 tie with visiting Irvine Valley College on Friday at the OCC Soccer Complex.

OCC (9-7-1, 6-3-1 in Orange Empire Conference) jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 54th minute when Dean Regis sent a well-played pass down to Denny Perdomo, who slipped a pass to Omid Kazemi. From there, the freshman midfielder ripped a steep-angle shot off the IVC goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Controlling play for most of the second half, the Pirates could not get that much-needed insurance goal and it came back to bite them in the 82nd minute when IVC's Chris Popke dribbled through the Coast defense and found an opening into the upper-right portion of the net to tie the game for good.

Both teams played to a scoreless tie in the first half, although Coast again had a great opportunity to score off a breakaway, but the shot was chipped over the charging goalkeeper and just over the crossbar in the final few seconds of the half.

Pirates' goalkeeper Zakre Silva notched nine saves, while IVC's Kurt Bond came up with 11 saves.

Next week, the Pirates will have their hands full. On Tuesday, Coast will travel to Golden West to take on the rival Rustlers at 3 p.m. On Friday, Coast will host OEC leader Santa Ana at the OCC Soccer Complex, also at 3 p.m.