Cañada College Colts men’s soccer put an end to the Skyline College Trojans’ season with 3-0 victory in the third round of regionals at Cañada on Tuesday, Nov. 25. The game was déjà vu for the Trojans, as their previous matchup with the Colts ended with the same score on the same field: a 3-0 loss at Cañada.
The Trojans were most competitive during the first 20 minutes of the match, with multiple missed shots on goal. Skyline freshman forward Ethan Jimenez Flamenco had a major missed shot on the goal that came close to going in the goal in the 19th minute. Just six minutes later, Cañada scored its first goal in the 25th minute.
Skyline head coach Gabe Saucedo said the main cause of Skyline’s loss was its missed opportunities early on to score goals.
“For the first 20 minutes we were really good, it just wasn’t our day,” Saucedo said. “We hit two balls off the [goal] post, and we missed a couple pretty easy goals, and that was a difference in the game.”
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The Colts received first-half goals from midfielders Chris Lopez and Josh Ramos, then capped the match off with a goal from forward Dylan Antunovich in the 59th minute of the game.
Flamenco said Skyline failed to capitalize on its chances to score and credited Cañada in the matchup for playing better soccer to complete the victory.
“If you don’t capitalize… that means you’re not the better team and at the end of the day Cañada capitalized,” Flamenco said. “I do feel like maybe we could have done better on our part, being more prepared.”
Saucedo said that, going into the matchup, he was confident in the group’s ability to cause an upset against Cañada who ranked No. 5 in state.
Skyline assistant head coach Mike Sharabi said the team created enough chances to change the outcome, but missed crucial follow-up opportunities throughout the game that made a difference.
“We had two or three chances that should have been goals, we hit the [goal] post twice, [and] we just weren’t there for the follow ups,” Sharabi said. “It was really just in… the final third, we weren’t good enough in the box.”
The game was physical from start to finish, with Skyline picking up four yellow cards and Cañada receiving three. Tensions peaked near the end when Cañada freshman midfielder Mikel Gonzalez was given a red card for shoving a Skyline player.
While the matchup was a cross-district rivalry game, Flamenco said it had no effect on the intensity either team brought to the playoff game.
“Rivalry or not, it should not matter,” Flamenco said. “You should always go into the game with the mentality of, we want to win, you should never fear your opponents, you should always be prepared and we lacked preparation.”
Saucedo said while the loss was disappointing, he was proud of how the Trojans played for each other this season and appreciated the successes the team had overall.
“The guys really came together about halfway through the season, and really started caring for each other, working hard for each other, playing hard for each other, so I’m just really happy with that,” Saucedo said.
The Trojans finished the season with a 13-5-5 record and went 2-1 in the regional playoffs, including an upset of the No. 4 seed Cosumnes River College in the second round.