Men's soccer splits opener

By Ana Tintocalis, On-Line Forty-Niner

Monday, September 14, 1998

The Long Beach State men's club soccer team was unable to tame the Clemson Tigers in their first home game of the season on Saturday, but The Beach quickly rebounded and clinched its first victory against Arizona State on Sunday.

The Clemson Tigers came out strong and scored four minutes into the first half.

The quick opportunity to score came when the Tigers' midfielder Matt Spencer tipped the ball over 49er goalie Claudio Ribas.

Ribas got a hand on the ball but couldn't keep it from going into the goal.

"We started off a little flat," said 49ers sweeper Steve Thomas. "But then we picked up, of course it took a goal to do it, but we picked up after that."

The Beach was able to hold the Tigers scoreless for the rest of the first half. The 49ers took a few shots on goal, but was unable to get anything past the Tiger defense.

After refueling with lots of water during half-time, the 49ers took to the field again only to have the same first half scoring situation repeated. W

ith just a few minutes into the second half, the Tigers' midfielder Trevor Gauron drilled a header into the goal off of a corner kick from forward Randy Atkinson.

The Beach was able to fend off the Tigers for the rest of the game thanks to some solid defense.

"I think we definitely played even with them," Head Coach Sanjit Toor said. "Most of the time I'm pessimistic and say that we got out-played, but today we easily played with them. We just didn't finish when we needed to and we let in two silly goals."

"...We know what we need to work on," forward Brian McMahon said. "This just shows us where we stand for the season. The other team showed a lot of skill out here and we played to their ability. I think we did a really good job for our first game."

After losing to Clemson University, the 49ers came back with a vengeance and attacked the Arizona State Sun Devils 2-1 in their second game on Sunday.

The Sun Devils were first to score, but The Beach tied the game in the second half when newcomer halfback Nick Phelps fired a shot into the goal off of an indirect kick by Ryan Keck.

The 49ers sealed their victory when Jordan Nedeff scored the winning goal by taking a header off a chipped cross-ball from Phelps.

The men's club soccer team will return to action this Saturday when they play Pepperdine University at Long Beach State's Athletic Field.