The Fresno City College men’s soccer team suffered their third loss of the season as Las Positas took a hard fought match in Fresno 2-1.
After starting the 2010 season with a 0-2-1 record, the Rams were looking to gather their fourth consecutive win of the season as they took on the Hawks Sept. 14.
FCC’s men’s soccer coach Eric Solberg said that the inability to cash in on the early opportunities provided Las Positas the chance to stay in the game longer.
“We got behind them right away and tried to force the ball down their throat instead of holding onto the ball,” said Solberg. “Sometimes [the missed opportunities] come back and bite you. We could’ve been up two or three nothing early in the game and didn’t do that.”
Las Positas’ men’s soccer coach Ramiro Rodriquez described the Hawks’ plan of attack going into their meeting with the Rams.
“The last five years, Fresno has always been very aggressive when playing against us,” said Rodriquez. “In prior years we played defensively because we knew they were stronger than us. This year we just go in there and do the Mike Tyson first round and take them on.”
FCC came out aggressive in the first half. The Rams created a handful of chances to put the game away early but were unable to capitalize on any of them. With the Hawks defense under constant pressure from the Rams offense, it seemed that the Hawks were playing on borrowed time before the Rams would finally cash in.
Las Positas took advantage of the constant pressure that FCC provided on a weird play that had Rams defenders, as well as their fans, in complete shock.
Luis Rocha started the scoring for Las Positas when he delivered a shot that deflected off a Rams defender and sailed into the net to put the Hawks up 1-0 in the first half.
The Rams came out in the second half with the same game plan that they had to start the game. FCC continued to attack on Las Positas’ side of the field most of the second half, searching for the goal that could tie the game up.
The Hawks defense proved relentless this day however and Las Positas once again capitalized late in the game on the Rams’ aggressiveness. Las Positas’ Gerardo Garcia sent a header past FCC’s Tad Patrick to put the Hawks up 2-0 late in the second half.
Down 2-0, the Rams still showed they had fight left in them. Herb Garzon executed a brilliant shot from the left side that sailed past the Hawks’ goalie to give FCC and their fans a little hope down the final stretch of the game.
Las Positas proceeded to spread the field out for the remainder of the game to squash any comeback chances the Rams were hoping for on the way to the 2-1 victory.
After securing the insurance goal late in the second half, Rodriquez believed that the Hawks had to continue playing aggressively to keep the Rams from coming back.
“If we back up right there it was too much time for them,” said Rodriquez. “We still wanted to play them toe-to-toe until the last ten minutes. If we still had [the 2 goal lead] in the last ten minutes then we’d play more defensively to secure the win.”
A team that posted a 14-5-5 record in 2009 with a trip to the state semi-finals, FCC is currently 3-3-1 and has already allowed more goals in the first seven games this season (16) than they did all of last season (15).
“We won three in a row and didn’t come in prepared,” said Solberg. “We knew we were playing a team that probably wasn’t as good as us, our first home game, and we just didn’t come out ready to play today.”
The Rams opponents in the coming weeks include a match against Lassen College on Sept. 27 before opening conference play on Oct. 1 against COS at Fresno and then traveling to Modesto for a nonconference game on Oct. 5.
