The Rio Hondo Men’s Soccer team started off their week on the road as they traveled to Torrance to face El Camino College Oct 18 in an interdivision match.

Coming off a week where the Roadrunners won their first meeting against Chaffey College Oct 11 with a score of 2-1 and tied 1-1 against El Camino College Compton Center Oct 14, the team needed to find some consistency with wins to try and finish strong in their remaining six games.

The Roadrunners did indeed start off strong against El Camino, scoring at the 8:07 mark as Angel Flores put Alejandro Luna in a scoring position to get them on the board first, 1-0.

El Camino’s Reyes Jaimes took little time to respond, scoring only three minutes later to tie the game up 1-1 for his team. The Roadrunners struck back at the 30th minute when Edgar Perez scored from an assist from Ricky Sotelo to give his team a 2-1 lead heading into the half.

By the 76th minute, Rio built a comfortable 3-1 lead after Sergio Ramos scored a goal from Sotelo, and were in firm control until Jaimes scored once again near the end of the game, but the Roadrunners held on for their seventh win of the season.

Rio out shot El Camino 16-14 throughout the game, but were plagued with calls that went against them amounting 13 fouls, two yellow cards, and a red card to Andy Marin eight minutes into the game.

The Roadrunner’s next game was back at home against Long Beach City College Oct 21 and was the only meeting Rio would have against the visiting Vikings this season.

From the start, Long Beach proved to be a tough opponent for Rio as both teams struggled to find the net, with Rio having three opportunities and were all stopped by Long Beach goalie, Saul Ocampo.

The second half wasn’t much different than the first, with Rio once again having three more shots at the goal, with one being made at point blank range, but stopped again by Ocampo.

Rio Hondo goalie, Edwin Elizarraraz also stopped attacks from the opposition, having three saves in the game.

The win and the tie bring Rio to a 7-2-6 record and 2-0-3 conference, and will be on the road to face LA Harbor College Oct 25 and Cerritos College Oct 28 to round up their interdivision games.