DESPITE LOSS TO DEFENDING STATE CHAMPS, MARAUDERS PLEASED WITH EFFORT

Photo by Bruce Jacobsen

LANCASTER - Most coaches will tell you that they'll take a bad win over a pretty loss.

Certainly in most cases most coaches will say that. There are no moral victories, are there?

Of course there are, especially on Tuesday when the Marauder men's soccer team battled defending state champions and undefeated Oxnard College.

The Marauders' motto, "From 0 to 90 we play for each other and leave it all on the field until the final whistle."

That certainly applied and despite a 1-0 loss to the Condors at Marauder Stadium, the Marauders were certainly pleased with their effort.

"Our defense played flawless for 89 minutes," AVC head coach Jerry Stupar said. "They scored on one defenseive breakdown and that's what high caliber teams do. They capitalize on every opportunity. Today we lived up to our motto."

Oxnard (4-0-6) scored on the 40th minute of the game off a goal from Raul Gonzalez. The Condors outshot the Marauders (4-5-2), 14-3. One of those shots came from sniper Jose Mojica, who broke through the defense in the 87th minute which was saved by Matthew Escareno to preserve the victory.

Goal keeper Trevor Allen was impressive finsihing with eight saves.