Brawl ends soccer game

By Lyndsey Shinoda
Daily Forty-Niner

Things turned ugly on a cloudless Sunday morning as the Long Beach State men's club soccer team battled with UC Riverside in more ways than one.

Officials terminated the game between the club teams when a fight broke out mid-way through the second half with LBSU ahead 2-1.

From the blow of the first whistle, the 49ers dominated the match, controlling the ball with lots of good communication and triangle passing.

The 49ers had a lot of overlapping on defense, making for a more potent offensive attack.   Toward the tail end of the first half of play, midfielder and team co-captain Dan Kolano was fouled just outside of the goal box. Midfielder Dave Miller knocked the ball into the bottom left corner of the net on a trick play, tallying his first goal of the season and giving the 49ers a 1-0 lead at the half.

"All in all it was a good showing by us in the first half," said 49er defender and Co-captain Mike Stevens. "We were the better team."

In the second half, UCR scored on a direct kick. LBSU players disputed the call because the referee had signaled that it was an indirect kick, causing some confusion.

LBSU's second goal of the game came from the team's leading scorer Tristan Corbett on a pass from Kolano. It was the forward's 10th goal of the season.

There was a lot of trash talking throughout the physical match, and in the second half No. 19 of UCR deliberately took out LBSU's Juan Rodriguez from behind. He was given a yellow card, but continued mouthing off, so the referee pulled out a red card, ejecting No. 19 from the game.

It looked as if the player was walking to the sidelines when all of a sudden he blindsided Rodriguez with a blow to the head and started running away.   Players from both sides then charged toward one another, throwing punches and kicks. Eventually the melee came to a halt and the referees spoke to both teams' captains, deciding to end the game for safety reasons.

LBSU's Head Coach Sanjit Toor was disappointed with UCR's actions.

"When the two players fought, that was fine, but their keeper also came out running at Juan," Toor said. "He (No. 19) is going to be out of the league. This game was so important to the league, so it's tough."

Toor said the referees will write up a report of what happened and if the 49ers are awarded the win, the team's record will stand at 9-2-1.

"It was just poor sportsmanship by Riverside," Kolano said. "Hopefully we get the win."

Stanley Best, UCR's Head Coach and forward, said if he knew this was going to happen, he would have stayed home and studied instead.

"Even though he got a red card, he had no reason to fight," Best said. "A few blows were thrown and it would've gotten out of hand. The referee made the right call."

Best was apologetic, but said that No. 19 showed no remorse.

"We haven't had a fight in four years," Best said. "This isn't even division one, it's supposed to be fun."

Caroline Limuti/Daily Forty-Niner

Men's soccer player Steve Thomas drives ball past UC Riverside defender, moments before a fight ended the game.