Solorio’s Key Saves, Late Goal by Mckibbin Seals Win for Long Beach FC

By Dan Minkoff
April 12, 2025

ARCADIA, Calif. — Sometimes, you gotta win ugly. Long Beach FC didn’t play its best, but managed a hard-earned 2-0 victory over Rose City FC at Arcadia City Hall Soccer Field thanks to its defense and goals from attacking midfielders Lucas Gonzalez and Mike Mckibbin.

Although the game wasn't particularly dirty, the teams combined for eight yellow cards (four each) and 27 fouls (14 for Rose City, 13 for Long Beach).

The shutout was LBFC’s third of the season and first for goalkeeper Alan Solorio, who made four saves, three of them to deny quality scoring opportunities for Rose City (2-1-3, 7 points), which was tougher than its record and ninth-place league position would suggest. The clean sheet puts Solorio one behind teammate Charlie Murray, who has LBFC’s other two. Long Beach (6-0-1, 18 points) has allowed just eight goals in seven games and stayed on top of the UPSL Premier SoCal North conference, 3 points ahead of Coachella FC, which has played one less game.

“It feels good to get the shutout. These boys work hard, they took care of everything they could offensively, I trusted my back line and I did what I had to do between the sticks,” Solorio said after the game.

• Solorio selected as the Legends “Legend of the Match.” See his postgame interview here.

The defense was led by the back line of Cesar Tapia, captain Aaron Minkoff and Zane Baumgardt and defensive midfielders Martin Velasquez and Taj Winnard.

However, David Forde and Mckibbin made arguably the two biggest defensive plays of the game.

Forde made a goal line clearance in the second half with Long Beach clinging to a 1-0 lead. Not long after, Mckibbin turned defense into offense when he took a couple steps backward to bait Rose City center back Dmorea Alewine into making what he thought was a safe, square pass at the halfway line. Mckibbin stepped in between Alewine and his teammate, poked the ball into space and raced in alone, beating the goalkeeper to give Long Beach a two-goal cushion with about 5 minutes remaining.

It was an important win for Long Beach, which now has three weeks off before its next game due to the Easter weekend break followed by a bye week.

“This was a huge win,” Solorio said. “We have to look at each game as a championship game. We can’t take our foot off the pedal. We need to take each game with the right mindset that it’s a championship game. Win or we’re out. That’s how were looking at it from here on out.” 

LBFC’s next match will be at home against Santa Ana Winds FC at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 3 at Cabrillo High School Jaguar Stadium. Tickets for all home games, including a season Shorepass can be purchased online or at the gate. The full schedule and past results can be found here.

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