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With playoff hopes on line, Brigade fires blanks in loss

BY STEPHEN LYNCH, Special to The Californian | Saturday, Jul 5 2008 10:59 PM

Last Updated: Monday, Jul 7 2008 10:57 AM

The inability to score goals has plagued the Bakersfield Brigade the entire 2008 season. The trend continued Saturday night as the San Francisco Seals scored two late goals to defeat the Brigade 2-0 at Bakersfield Christian High School.

Peter Lovell scored in 83rd minute to give San Francisco a 1-0 lead and three minutes later Junior Burgos added an insurance goal for the final margin.

Justin Kim assisted both scores.

In its final home game of the regular season, the Brigade (3-3-7) finished with 12 shots on goal, while San Francisco (6-3-3) had seven.

"I'm very disappointed," said Brigade coach Francisco Gomez. "I definitely think we deserved better. We were definitely the better team until we had a player sent off. We tried to look for the game because we needed a win. You take a risk putting guys forward and trying to get a goal because we couldn't afford to tie."

Bakersfield's Quincy Amarikwa had a golden scoring opportunity in the 21st minute but was tripped up in the box by San Francisco keeper Eric Conner before getting a shot off on the wide open goal. Despite contact by Conner no foul was called on the play.

Carlos Fernandez received a red card in the 68th minute for a hard tackle causing the Brigade to play a man down until San Francisco's Niall Irwin was ejected in 82nd minute.

The Brigade had five shots on goal compared to two for the Seals in a scoreless first half.

But needing a win to keep its playoff hopes alive, the Brigade had to take play aggressive offensively late in the game opening up scoring chances for the Seals.

"Not getting those wins and all those tie has really affected us," Gomez said.

The Brigade returns to action on Saturday at the Orange County Blue Star.