AWC men's soccer drops second straight

Youth was serving the Arizona Western College men's soccer team well in the first four games of the season. The Matadors were off to a 4-0 start and stood at 2-0 in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference.

But that same youth is licking it wounds after two straight losses - both to conference foes.

The latest a 3-1 defeat to visiting Yavapai College on Saturday. The Roughriders (6-0, 4-0 ACCAC) extended their program-long winning streak against the Matadors to 38-0.

Coming into Saturday's matchup against the top-ranked team in the NJCAA, Arizona Western was hurting defensively as five regulars were limited or out entirely due to injuries or suspension.

"It (not having them) was huge, huge," said AWC coach Kenny Dale. "The guys that we had in there did a good job. But it was just a matter of too many horses, against too few really."

The heart of the Matadors' defense Eddie Ponce missed his second game of a two-game suspension following a red card he received Monday in non-conference play at Cuyamaca College.

Joining him on the bench was fellow starting defender Jesus Servin, who may be out for the season due to a serious knee injury. The extent of the injury will be determined next week.

It took the better part of the first half before the defending national champion Roughriders capitalized on the patchwork defense.

Yavapai broke the game open with two goals over a two-minute span. Freshman Gabriel Okito drew two defenders and AWC goalkeeper Manuel Lugo to the right post and then centered to sophomore Francis Khamis, who easily deposited the ball in the wide open goal.

A minute later, the Matadors had trouble controlling and clearing the ball defensively and freshman Fabrice Kalala scored what turned out to be the game winner.

"We had seven really, really poor minutes in the first half and then it's 2-nil," Dale said. "And then when you are down you are just chasing the game."

The surge by the Roughriders came after 20-year coach Mike Pantalione reinserted his first-string attackers back into the lineup. Pantalione urged them to be patient and make something happen as they walked back on the field.

"We just wanted them to develop more combination passing," Pantalione said. "Then they strung together a nice sequence which opened up the game for us."

Khamis added his second goal of the game at the 78th minute after juking two AWC defenders and slotting the ball in the lower-left-hand corner of the goal past a diving Lugo.

Despite giving up three goals, Lugo had three tremendous diving saves in the second half. He finished with six total saves on the afternoon.

The Matadors answered on their next possession. Abdel Becerra ended the shutout after a nice assist from Vinny Muscarella.

After an all-or-nothing mentality on offense in the first half, the Matadors settled down in the second half and dominated time of possession, something that Dale was pleading with them to do in the first half.

"(In the first half) when we would win the ball we would panic and run," Dale said. "We needed to play the game at our pace the whole way. That is one of the reasons we did so well in the second half - we were playing at our own pace.

"The goal we created is an example of that - building it up, knocking it around, moving, moving, playing and then you go," he said.

Arizona Western returns to conference action at 6 p.m. Wednesday against visiting South Mountain Community College.

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Brian Williams can be reached at
bwilliams@yumasun.com or 539-6880.