See-Saw Battle Sees Huskies Take Control Late for First Home Win

by Cerwin D Haynes

On the heels of a 5-1 road victory over West Hills-Lemoore, it would be fair to ask if East LA College men's soccer head coach Eddie Flores has finally found the kind of offensive potency that has eluded his squads the past several seasons.

His Huskies put up another fiver tonight versus Santiago Canyon, but unlike Lemoore, ELAC (2-1-0) needed just about every one of their five goals to fend off the Hawks (0-1-0) at Weingart, 5-3.

ELAC opened the game strong within the first 15 minutes: the Huskies utilized nifty dribbling (particularly M Yudelfi Echeverria) to elude ball pressure and control passing lanes. Midfielder Matthew Cortez booted a slow-roller from 13-ft out that eluded the stretch of Juan Pablo Alvarez at 5:55.

Later on within the closing minutes of the first half, East put more pressure on Santiago Canyon's net and it looked like they would enter halftime with the lead. But a major defensive lapse lead to a penalty kick by the visitors: Andrew Marentes, pressuring ELAC goalie Tomas Ibarra as he was about to play the ball, got sandwiched between Ibarra and another Husky inside the box. Marentes converted the PK to tie the game with 0:00, with halftime right after.

The second half saw an offensive see-saw battle: Joel Palomera put the Huskies up 2-1 at 49:02 on a 25-ft free kick that somehow angled past everyone - including Hawks GK Alvarez - and found the left side of the net. But back to back goals by the Hawks suddenly had the home Green in a 3-2 hole 10 minutes later.

Yet, the Pack was undeterred: M Matthew Cortez tied the game at 3 at the 67:17 mark, and F Jahvon Brown found daylight to boot home the deciding goal at 71:22. F Anco Veiga kicked in an insurance goal as time was expiring at 90:00 even.

HUSKY BITS

• ELAC had a pair of five-goal victories two years ago, but only one such game last season - a 5-2 win over PCC in the SCC Tournament. That was the famous Anco Veiga Game, where the reserve freshman came off the bench to score four goals. Veiga had his second goal of the season today.
• The Huskies have 10 goals in two games. Last season, East didn't score its 10th goal until September 23 during a 3-2 win at Glendale.
• Typically a defensive-oriented squad, the last time the team averaged over two goals a game on the season was in 2017-18.

UP NEXT:

The Pack will have the weekend to enjoy the win and fine-tune their defense before heading down to Orange Coast College on Tuesday, September 5 to face the Pirates. Gametime at 3pm.