On a hot Tuesday afternoon, a spectator could have been fooled into thinking the Fresno City College men’s soccer and College of the Canyons played an even, back and forth game – that is, if they missed the first 45 minutes of the game at Ratcliffe Stadium on Sep. 17.

The Cougars put two goals past FCC in the last 35 minutes just to secure a tie after being down 2-0 at half time. Just 10 minutes into the second half, the Cougars (2-1-1) midfielder Cesar Dominguez headed the ball into the back of the net in the six yard box to slowly start their comeback from being down. It was not an impressive goal, more so of taking advantage of the Rams defensive mistakes in the back.

The mistakes were especially becoming more apparent towards the last 10 minutes of the game when Cougars midfielder Jose Rojas is left wide open for a two on one inside the 18 where he chiped the goalkeeper in the 85th minute to level the score at 2-2.

Head coach Eric Solberg was understandably critical of his team’s performance, but surprisingly puts all the blame on himself.

“It was 90 minutes of bad soccer, even when we were up 2-0, it was just bad soccer,” Solberg said. “They definitely played harder than us, and it is just disappointing to not see the guys ready to go.”

Solberg later than told his players that the cougars comeback was his fault, because he is not doing his best to prepare them to play.

The start of the second half may have been part of the reason things looked even. From the first goal for the Cougars, all the way until the last whistle, both teams made mistakes. Both teams accurately showcased how balanced the two teams were, but unfortunately for the Rams, they just didn’t have enough discipline to finish the game with a 2-0 victory at home.

Sophomore captain Alex Covarrubias was very much disappointed in the teams performance in the second half of the game.

“Second half, the team came in lazy thinking that we had already won in the first half. Maybe thinking that going into the second half, it was going to be easy,” Covarrubias said. “The other team just wanted it more and that’s how they came back to score two goals.”

The Rams next game will be against Bakersfield Community College on Friday, Sep. 21 at 4 p.m. in Ratcliffe Stadium.