An early start, a long drive, and a dearth of players did not dampen the effort of College of Marin Men's Soccer on Tuesday. The noon kickoff in Monterey meant an early morning for the Men's Soccer Team. In addition, injuries meant the Mariners had just 10 total players for the day's match at Monterey Peninsula College.
Being outnumbered did not phase the Mariners as they controlled the early parts of the game. In just the 11th minute a Mariner was dragged down in the box resulting in a penalty to Marin. Hector Penunuri stepped up and calmed beat the keeper to give the Mariners a 1-0 advantage.
The score remained the same into the halftime whistle where the battle cry was, keep up the effort despite the disadvantage. They did continue to battle through the final 45 minutes of play. The team kept their energy despite the lack of rest. Unfortunately, the Marin phalanx could not hold the full 90 minutes of regulation. In the 85th minute Monterey found the breakthrough and scored to tie the game up at 1-1. Neither team was able to muster much of an attack in the final five minutes as both teams played to a draw.
Despite giving up the late lead, Marin Head Coach Michael Crivello was pleased with his team, "Another great effort from the team today, really liked how we grinded it out and got the draw under some adverse conditions. Hopefully we can build off this result."
The Mariners next match is Monday, September 11th as they host College of the Siskiyous at 11:00am.