Playoff hopes for the men’s soccer team are fading after losing 5-1 to Mt. SAC Tuesday, dropping its record to 5-5-2.

EC’s next game will be Tuesday when they travel to face Long Beach City. A win by the men’s team is vital to keep playoff hopes alive.

“We need every win from the following games,” sophomore Carlos Espinoza said., “We can maybe afford a draw, but winning the remainder of our games is important.”

The men’s team will face East L.A. Oct 24 and will then host Pasadena Oct 28. This will leave EC with only three regular season games.

Against Mt. SAC last Tuesday, the men’s team lost 5-1 in a game that was filled with controversial decisions by the referee. EC went into halftime trailing 1-0. but managed to even the game 15 minutes into the second half after sophomore Pedro Vera scored the team’s only goal of the contest.

Mt. SAC went ahead 2-1 after the referee failed to call a foul in a play where an EC player was hit in the face by an opponent’s elbow.

“I asked the ref why he hadn’t called the foul,” assistant coach Eddie Barragan said. “He then automatically ejected me from the game.”

Despite the 5-1 loss, Barragan believes the team played a good game in the beginning but gradually lost control due to bad calls by the referees.

“The score said 5-1, but it doesn’t reflect the way we played,” Barragan said. “The first half and the first 25 minutes of the second half we played very well. Unfortunately, after our player got the red card, we just couldn’t recover. The team just fell apart.”

Against Cerritos Friday, the team had better luck in defeating Cerritos 3-2. Freshman Luis Garcia scored the first goal while sophomores Damian Morris and Carlos Espinoza scored the second and third goals.

“We came out for the second half and managed to maintain the lead,” Espinoza said. “We are working a lot and getting better at managing games.”