The Long Beach City College men's soccer team couldn't complete another amazing comeback as it did on Monday at Orange Coast College. On Friday afternoon in the sweltering heat, the Vikings suffered a narrow 2-1 non-conference loss to visiting San Diego City College in their home opener.

It was the second time in three weeks that the two teams faced each other with Long Beach defeating the Knights on their home field on August 28 by a final score of 3-1.

This time, the Vikings found themselves trailing early. On the opening kickoff, SDCC's Oren Shoval raced down field and blasted his shot by LBCC goalkeeper Francisco Magana for the immediate 1-0 advantage.

Long Beach's best chance to score came in the 50th minute. Freshman Francisco Magallon took a breakaway down the right side of the field and sent a cross pass towards the middle of the box. San Diego City goalkeeper Oscar Vazquez knocked down the pass and reacted quickly to save another shot headed for the goal.

The Knights added an insurance goal in the 61st minute when Tony Nguyen took a pass from Shoval and broke free down the middle for the score.

The Vikings made the game interesting when sophomore Ismael Ayala (pictured) scored in the 90th minute. Freshman Jose Perez nailed a shot off the left goal post, but Ayala was in perfect postion for the easy put-back to get Long Beach on the board.

LBCC turned up the pressure, but couldn't get the equalizer before the final whistle.

Magana had two saves in goal for Long Beach (2-3) while Vazquez had three for San Diego City (2-3).

Today was the first of four straight home game for the Vikings. Long Beach hosts Rio Hondo College on Tuesday at 4 pm.

Photo by Chris Ruiz