Heading into their quarterfinal match the Long Beach Football Club had one thing on their mind – play their style.
Long Beach did just that as Michael McKibbin scored three goals to pace LBFC to a 5-3 victory over Coachella Football Club Saturday night at Cabrillo High School.
Long Beach FC is a local pro team competing in the United Premier Soccer League. They’re currently in the Southern California playoffs hoping to win a title and advance.
“It felt like a lot of the time I wasn’t guarded,” McKibbin said. “Every time the ball would just land on me and I had a ton of space and I was just shocked, but you got to take what you get.”
After losing their regular season match to Coachella 3-2, LBFC found themselves in another tight match as the visitors had an answer every time Long Beach took a lead.
Michele Somenzi gave LBFC a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute, but Coachella’s Roberto Ordonez responded two minutes later when he found himself behind the defense to knot the game at 1-1.
Three minutes later Lucas Gonzalez found McKibbin on a beautiful cross that he was able to control and find the back of the net to give Long Beach a 2-1 lead.
“The offense has been connecting all season and you saw Mikey’s quality today,” Gonzalez said. “Just creating plays.”
While LBFC started to click, Coachella responded each time in the first half as Erick Serrano scored to tie the game 2-2 in the 24th minute.
McKibbin continued to put pressure on Coachella as he delivered again in the 34th minute to give LBFC a 3-2 lead.
Ordonez’s second goal tied the game 3-3 heading into the half in an exciting 45 minutes of action.
With their opportunity to head to the next round at stake, Long Beach’s defense tightened up to give the offense a chance to take the lead.
After more than 20 minutes in a stalemate, Gonzalez scored his first goal of the match to give LBFC a 4-3 lead.
“I think our mentality was everything,” Gonzalez said. “We put everything, all of our energy, all of our resources all of our energy into this take. Took it play by play and play and used our momentum and place as a team the entire time.”
McKibbin goal put the game away with his third goal of the game and the Long Beach defense pitched a shutout to advance to the next round.
“The guys understood what the game place was and we executed,” LBFC coach Art Caballero said. “That was the biggest difference – we executed.”
Long Beach will now take on the winner of LA10 and Ocelot Academy in the semifinals–the game has not yet been scheduled but will likely be this weekend.
