USL Game Report

Saturday, April 18, 2015

IRVINE, Calif. – Orange County Blues FC handed Arizona United SC its first loss of the 2015 season on Saturday night, shutting out the visiting side 3-0 at UC Irvine’s Anteater Stadium.

Christofer Ramirez scored two goals and Luka Petricevic added a first-half tally as the Blues improved to 2-1-0 on the season. Arizona United dropped to 3-1-0, with all four games on the road to open the season.

The Blues scored their first goal of the night in the 33rd minute when Didier Crettenand fired a corner kick straight to Ramirez, who headed it home to give the forward his first goal with Orange County. Four minutes later, Crettenand drove in another corner kick, and this time it was Petricevic on the finish into the low right corner of the net.

Orange County continued taking chances on Arizona’s goal when Ramirez received a long pass from defender Romeo Filipovic.  The Salvadoran brought down the ball, and got past two Arizona defenders and beat Arizona goalkeeper Carl Woszczynski.

During the second half, Arizona picked up its pressure, trying to pull one back. United had a chance in the 50th minute when Jose Cuevas centered a pass to Dennis Chin, who got dangerously close to the Blues goal, but defender Brenton Griffiths cleared the ball away.

Orange County continued to produce opportunities for more goals, but the Arizona goalkeeper stood tall. In the 67th minute, Woszczynski dived right to save a ball that would have given Petricevic his second goal of the night. Denzel Slager flew up the right side, outrunning Arizona’s defenders and shot a hard ball which the former Blues keeper tapped above and over the crossbar.

Next, the Blues hit the road for the first time this season, as they travel up north to take on the 2014 USL champion Sacramento Republic FC on Friday, April 24.