Fresno pierces Brigade's defense
| Friday, Jul 03 2009 11:30 PM
Last Updated Friday, Jul 03 2009 11:30 PM
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Bakersfield Brigade coach Francisco Gomez found his team lacking in a couple of important facets of its game early in the second half against the visiting Fresno Fuego on Friday night at Bakersfield Christian High School.
And according to Gomez that allowed Fresno to score three quick goals en route to a 3-0 victory, avenging a 2-0 loss earlier in the season to the Brigade (2-8-2).
"I think every time a team scores early the half its lack of concentration and lack of commitment to defend your goal," Gomez said. "Those are the most important minutes of a game; the first ten minutes of the half. They really put us away the first five minutes (of the second half.)"
After controlling most of the action in the first half but getting nothing to show for it, Fresno (4-4-4) found the back of the net the times in the first 13 minutes of second half to extend its unbeaten streak to four games.
The Fuego outshot the Brigade 6-1 in the second half.
"It was a very disappointing performance by our group," Gomez said. "They didn't come out and play. I definitely thought the motivation would be a decent crowd but it didn't work."
Paul Islas gave the Fuego a 1-0 lead in the 46th minute with a leftfooted shot into net from the right side of the pitch. The goal was setup by a short accurate pass from Orlando Ramirez after Robert Rodriguez sent the ball into the scoring area.
Four minutes later Islas assisted Tyler Reinhart to make it 2-0.
In the 58th minute, Reinhart scored his fourth goal of the season to make it 3-0 after former Brigade player Santiago Aguilera's hard shot was deflected off a Bakersfield defender. The match was scoreless at halftime despite seven shots by Fresno and four from Bakersfield. The Fuego also had four corner kicks while the Brigade had one.
The Brigade came out strong but failed to convert on a pair of shots on goal in the game's opening 2 minutes.
Earlier in the day the Brigade Under-20 team lost 3-1 to the Chivas USA Under-20 squad.
Chivas led 2-0 at halftime. Eric Flores tallied the Brigade's lone goal.
