On a blistering hot day, SBCC and Santa Monica scored early goals and couldn’t find the net again in a 1-1 men’s soccer tie at La Playa Stadium.
Kyran Johal took a pass from Nicolas Genthon and beat a defender and the keeper, who had come way out of the goal, in the eighth minute for a 1-0 Vaquero lead. Santa Monica, ranked No. 11 in the state, answered in the 13th minute on a corner kick. Gabriel Torres lofted the ball toward the front of the goal, Danny Hulbert’s shot caromed off a defender and onto the foot of Carlos Sandoval who scored from 2 yards out.
The Vaqueros are 6-3-3 and 2-2-3 in the WSC while the second-place Corsairs are 8-1-3 and 4-1-2. The temperature reached 91 degrees in the first half.
“I saw the space in front of me and Nick with his creativity, I knew he could find me,” said Johal, a sophomore forward from London, England. “We’ve been working on trying to finish our chances. I brought it down and slided it home. Unfortunately, they got one back shortly after.
“We should have won the game. We wanted to take control early and we did that. Once they scored, we got a little deflated. We should be winning games like this.”
The teams also tied in shots (11) and shots on goal (3). They both had opportunities to take the lead with Yarden Amira misfiring high from seven yards out in the 37th minute for the Corsairs. SBCC had one shot on goal in the second half and Dylan Tuell’s left-footed try from five yards in the 80th minute was denied on a leaping save from Santa Monica’s keeper, Weston Adkins.
“We had a good start, then we didn’t defend the corner correctly and it’s in the back of the net,” said Vaquero coach John Sisterson. “Santa Monica is a good team but we let ourselves down. We shot ourselves in the foot again.
“That was a game we could have won. It didn’t seem like we wanted to brave enough to go forward and win the game. We spoke to the boys at length afterwards. You’re not going to win games unless you want to win. You have to be passionate about whatever sport you’re playing.”
The Vaqueros have one game next week – Tuesday at Moorpark, starting at 2 p.m.
