Aaron Aaberg scored early in the first half on Tuesday night and Kebba Nyang found the net early in the second half, leading SBCC to a 2-1 men’s soccer upset of 10th-ranked Oxnard at La Playa Stadium.
Nyang lofted a pass to the left post in the ninth minute and Aaberg drilled it into the lower right corner for a 1-0 lead over the first-place Condors (11-3-3, 9-2-1 WSC). Eight minutes into the second half, in the 53rd minute, Nyang weaved his way through three defenders on the right side, then faked out another and blasted a shot into the upper left from 10 yards.
“I saw a small opening on the inside and I just went for it,” said Nyang, a sophomore midfielder from Gothenburg, Sweden. “I was saying, ‘Should I cross it or shoot it?’ and I saw that the keeper was ready for a cross, so I just smashed it.”
It was the second goal in as many games for Nyang. The Vaqueros, who had tied their previous four games, improved to 7-3-6 and moved into fourth place in conference with a 3-2-6 record.
Oxnard is 32-2-6 in its last 40 WSC games.
“We really needed that,” said Nyang when asked how it felt to beat the first-place Condors. “Hopefully we can continue this momentum and beat all the other teams.”
Oxnard cut the lead in half in the 62nd minute when Mario Sermeno delivered a long lead pass to Gustavo Navarro and he scored from the right side to make it 2-1.
There were five yellow cards in an 11-minute stretch of the second half. The Condors had five yellows in the contest and the Vaqueros received two.
Oxnard outshot the Vaqueros 16-7, including 4-3 in shots on-goal.
SBCC goalie Zac Gottlieb, a freshman from London, England, made three saves. He made a superior save on a hard shot in the 52nd minute, then punched a shot by Fernando Hernandez Puga over the crossbar in the 83rd minute.
“A win like this has been long overdue,” said ninth-year SBCC coach John Sisterson. “The boys have played well enough and our record doesn’t reflect how well we’ve played. We worked hard tonight and Zac made a great save at the end. That was a tremendous goal by Kebba to win the game.
“I think we can still make the playoffs and I’ll feel that way until we’re mathematically eliminated. We should move up in the rankings with this result.”
Sisterson praised the play of Nyang, Gottlieb and defenders Johan Mauritzson and Jacob Salas, who’s played left back and right back.
The Vaqueros will host Glendale on Friday at 2 p.m.
