The Warriors (6-8-4, 0-4-1) never got into their groove against the Long Beach team (10-4-2, 2-1-1) that had lost three straight games coming into this matchup.

“We were not as strong as we needed to be today,” EC assistant coach Darin Dunn said. “Long Beach was just the better team.”

Both sides looked to attack early on in the game, with either team trying to pick apart the other to find a weakness within to exploit.

Unfortunately for EC, that weakness was exploited in the 19th minute by Long Beach forward Christopher Ribet, who scored his first goal of the game.

“I think in the first half we were a little slow,” EC goalkeeper Cesar Amezcua said. “Unfortunately for us, we didn’t get going when we needed to.”

Despite the early goal-against, the EC defense remained aggressive throughout the first, but again conceded a goal by Christopher Ribet right before halftime, making the score 2-0 in favor of LBCC through 45 minutes.

“Even though we started off slow, the second half was a lot better overall,” EC midfielder Brian Burrell said. “Overall we just played better, so that something to take away.”

The Warriors didn’t stop fighting until the final whistle, taking 10 of their 12 total shots in the second half.

Both teams played physical throughout the match, amassing 33 fouls by the teams combined, with four total yellow cards and one red card.

“We can’t make any more silly mistakes,” Amezcua said. “We are fighting for a playoff spot, so we have to get better results from now on.”

Despite the aggressiveness shown in the 2nd half, the Warriors fell short to the Vikings, with a final score of EC 0-2 LBCC.

“We need to have a better fight,” Dunn said. “Going forward here we need to fight to make it into the playoffs.”

Next up for the Warriors is an away game at Cerritos College on Tuesday, Oct. 31 at 2 p.m.