The Santa Rosa Junior College men’s soccer team beat conference opponent San Joaquin Delta College 2-1 at home on Friday, Nov. 1.
With the win, SRJC moved to 9-4-2 on the season. In their last matchup, the Bear Cubs lost 3-0 to the Mustangs on the road.
“I liked the first half as far as our performance,” SRJC head coach Marty Kinahan said. “The second half I thought was a little casual. We didn’t do anything different necessarily, I wish we’d gotten 3 [goals] on these guys because they got 3 [goals], but it was a nice redemption game.”
The Bear Cubs started off strong in the first half, pressing the Mustangs early. SRJC defender Raffino Landford ran up the left hand side of the penalty box and nearly scored, but missed wide.
SRJC had many shots on target but were foiled by Mustangs goalkeeper Franco Barba.
(Nathan Kaito Morris)
29 minutes into the game, SRJC midfielder Kleber Maldonado shot the ball outside the box with multiple defenders in front of him and scored the opening goal.
“I saw a little bit of space,” Maldonado said. “I knew I had to take the shot so I just took it. Thankfully it went in and I just had to celebrate with my teammates.”
In the 37th minute, SRJC defender Elliot Lindell almost scored a goal from a freekick but missed wide.
Two minutes later, SRJC defender Jordy Diaz dribbled the ball inside the box and sent the ball into the back of the net to double the Bear Cubs’ lead.
Right before halftime the Bear Cubs had an opportunity to further the lead when Diaz took the ball from San Joaquin Delta Midfielder Bissig Niklas. Diaz dribbled inside the box and passed it to the middle to SRJC Forward Juan Hernandez who shot the ball, but had his shot saved by Barba.
In the second half both teams were even until the last 10 minutes of the game when Bear Cubs midfielder Dominic Sanchez got a red card for a last man foul just outside the box. San Joaquin Delta midfielder Lilo Toussant shot the ball and scored in the bottom left corner.
SRJC went down to nine men when goalkeeper Abel Calvillo got a red card, giving the Bear Cubs two red cards in two minutes.
“Not something I’m proud of,” Kinahan said. “I think the guys played hard. I felt like our guys really wanted this game so they played hard. It’s hard to play with two men down. I’ve experienced that once so they just played hard which I was happy about.”
Jack Murdoch came in for Calvillo for the final minutes, and the Bear Cubs held on for the 2-1 win.
“We knew what we had to do,” Maldanado said. “We had a game plan. We came through with it. We had some hiccups throughout the game but we got the win. That’s what we wanted.”
The Bear Cubs took another home win on Nov. 5, this time a 3-0 win over Modesto Junior College. The Bear Cubs are now 10-4-2 overall and will play again at American River on Nov. 8. Playoffs will begin Nov. 23.
