Soccer is not typically a season built on streaks, but The Long Beach City College men’s soccer team has one going right now that they don’t mind a bit.  The Vikings extended its unbeaten streak to 11 games with a 3-1 win over visiting El Camino College on Tuesday in both teams’ South Coast Conference opener. Long Beach improved to 8-0-3 overall and 1-0 in the SCC while El Camino dropped to 3-7-7 and 0-1 in conference play.
 
The Vikings had numerous chances to score early in the game and got on the board in the 14th minute when freshman forward Manuel Batista sent a long cross pass from the left side to freshman midfielder Warwick Newbold. Newbold nailed his shot past El Camino keeper Ismael Casillas to give LBCC the 1-0 lead.
 
El Camino tied the game in the 35th minute when Tony Sandoval sent a long through ball to Luis Paz who netted the equalizer.  Whatever the LBCC coaching staff talked to its players about at halftime worked, because the Vikings took just 30 seconds after the second-half whistle to score.  Sophomore midfielder Jose Caniz fed Batista with a breakaway pass. Batista took the pass and one-timed a shot into the back of the net to put Long Beach up 2-1 in the 46th minute.
 
Long Beach added to its lead just moments before the end of the game as Caniz put a long pass on Batista’s foot near the end line.  Batista then fed freshman midfielder Kevin Morgan in front of the goal and he placed it past Casillas for the 90th-minute goal.
 
LBCC outshot El Camino by a 19-9 margin. Sophomore Chris DeWalt posted four saves in goal for Long Beach while Casillas had six saves.
 
Long Beach returns to action on Friday, October 3rd, when it travels to Pasadena City College for a 3 p.m. SCC game.

From Reports By LBCC’s Chris Ruiz