While its offense missed opportunities to score a goal, the men’s soccer team’s defense played aggressively and shut out L.A. Harbor Tuesday, 0-0.

With their overall record of 4-2-3 and 2-0-2 in conference, the Warriors look to continue their good defensive play and will host games against Cerritos tomorrow and Compton Tuesday at 4 p.m.

The South Coast Conference is considered as one of the toughest conferences, with solid teams such as Mt. SAC.

“Every team is very competitive and kind of even in our conference. No team is playing better than others,” assistant coach Eddie Barragan said. “Every game in our conference will be a tough and close game.”

In a physical game, EC had about twice as many chances to score a goal as L.A. Harbor did, but could not seize the chances.

“Chances that we did have just went out of the net, or the goalkeeper saved them,” team captain Saul Gonzalez said.

“When we were given chances, we couldn’t finish it.”

“We need to work on touching ball and midfield because we were sort of disorganized in the game and we’re playing a lot of long ball,” Gonzalez said.

Even when the offense cannot do its task, the Warriors have strong defense to relay on, which makes a good game.

“I think the team did a very good job defensively,” Gonzalez said.

Neither team scored a goal in the game, but they both fought well for the whole time.

“L.A. Harbor had chances to score and we had chances to score; there was just nothing to get in the net,” Gonzalez said. “Both teams put out a great effort.”

In a game against Pasadena City last Friday, midfielder Salvador Zelaya received a long throwing from midfielder Gonzalez and headed the ball into the net just before the game ended, which tied the game 1-1.

“As soon as I scored the goal, a whistle blew,” Zelaya said. “I thought we could score an another goal, but the game was over. Scoring the goal for the last minute was like winning the lottery.”

Although EC dominated the game with 15 throw ins, Pasadena City had a penalty kick opportunity in the first half and took a lead until Zelaya’s goal came in.

The team had a difficult time to adjust its play to a long narrow field.

“The game was a little bit sloppy because of the way the field was laid out,” Gonzalez said. “There was not too much space to control the ball and pass it around; there was a lot of kickball going on.”

“We could not really play the style that we wanted to play,” Barragan said. “I thought the team performance was fine, but it was too bad we had to play in the small field, which limited our play.”

Despite the struggle due to the small field, the team’s effort continued for full 90 minutes, which eventually gave EC a chance to score the precious goal.

It was not too bad because we got a tie, which is better than a loss,” Gonzalez said.

“I’m proud that players didn’t give up for full time,” Barragan said.