Glendora, CA (Men’s Soccer) -- Newton's third law of motion states, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. While Newton probably wasn’t specifically thinking about soccer when he came up with his hallowed “Laws of Motion,” the third law was a perfect example of Citrus 2-2 tie with Oxnard College on Tuesday afternoon. For every action in the game, both teams had an equal reaction, as the two squads played to a tie in their Western State Conference opener.
Oxnard would get the action going early on in the game, when Oxnard’s Willie Gutierrez took a corner kick and put it past Citrus goalie Manabu Kaji in the 11th minute giving Oxnard an early 1-0 lead. Citrus would react equally, minutes later when freshman Devin Conley did the same with an Owl corner kick tying the game up at 1-1 in the 23rd minute.
Six minutes later Citrus would strike again, this time thanks to the quick feet of sophomore Yves Tanonko. With the Oxnard attack well into Citrus’ territory, the Fighting Owls used an offensive misplay by the Condors to shoot the ball up to Tanonko who had just one defender and the goalie to beat. Tanonko quickly shot past the defender, and sent a bullet to the far side of the net and out of the reach of goalie Jesus Romero giving Citrus a tentative 2-1 lead.
The lead would be tentative thanks to another slick play by Oxnard’s Gutierriez. Less then two minutes after Citrus’ goal Gutierrez practically pulled the same move Tanonko had seconds earlier, burying his shot into the back of the goal and tying the game up at 2-2 where it would stay for the remainder of the match.
With the tie Citrus moves to 3-3-2 overall and 0-0-1 in WSC play, while Oxnard’s record goes to 4-4-1 and 0-0-1 in conference matches. Citrus continues their conference schedule this Friday as it travels to LA Mission, to take on the Eagles at 4:00 PM.
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