SUFC Team News #12 – Colton, CA
By Dan Minkoff
Under the floodlights of a late kickoff Sunday night at Colton High School, Shoreline United took an early lead in its UPSL Premier match against Ocelot Academy and pulled away to secure a 5-2 victory for its first win this season. It was the first time Shoreline scored first in five games and set the tone for its best offensive output.
Shoreline improved to 1-3-1 with 4 points and moved up to eighth place in the 12-team SoCal North division. Ocelot fell to 1-0-5 with 3 points. Chris Martinez scored twice, and Cameron Badal, Martin Velasquez and team leading scorer Jhoel Sarraude each found the back of the net to continue the team’s momentum after a draw in its last game.
“Finally,” Martinez said of the win.
Martinez and Sarraude Building Chemistry
He and Sarraude have played up top the last two games and are starting to form a nice chemistry together. Sarraude assisted Martinez on the opener in the third minute while Martinez assisted Sarraude’s goal in the 53rd minute, his fifth of the season, to give Shoreline a 2-1 lead. Sarraude also provided the assist for Badal’s goal in the 72nd minute, when Shoreline took the lead for good at 3-2.
“We’ve got a nice rhythm, nice partnership,” Martinez said. “I feel like ever since the first game we played together, yeah, we kind of understood each other, how we want to make the runs and the check-ins, and it's been going well. I feel like we can keep it up, scoring some more goals and getting more wins, for sure.”
Important First Goal
Goalkeeper Alan Solorio, making his first appearance for Shoreline, helped keep the team in the game in the first half with Alessandro Ramirez filling in admirably alongside Sebestian Rus in the heart of the defense until Erick Quevedo and co-captain Aaron Minkoff and took their place for the second half. Until then, co-captain Jerry Showe helped anchor the back line and knew getting the first goal was important.
“That allowed us to take control of the game,” Showe said. “You know, the previous games, we started off behind, so we had to start chasing. Tonight, we got the early goal, were able to take control for a majority of the game, be able to dictate and play the way we wanted to.”
Defensive Lock-Down
Shoreline went to a back five for the final 16 minutes to lock down the victory. Brandon Dunn made his first appearance of the season with 7 minutes to play, coming in at left back. He made two interceptions and started the attack that led to Martinez’s second goal with 3 minutes left in regulation and effectively put the game away. Velasquez scored 4 minutes into added time to extend the positive vibes.
“It feels like this is a game that we should have got more, just like the Inland Empire game,” Martinez said, referring to last week’s draw. “You gotta put them all away when you get the chance and today we did. So, no more losing. I’m tired of losing already. That's it. That was enough. This is the start of a nice run.”
Looking Ahead
Shoreline will be back home at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13 at the LBCC soccer fields to face second-place San Fernando Valley FC. Fourth-place Laguna United FC will host Shoreline the following weekend (day, time and location TBD).
Vamos Shoreline! #ForTheLBC