With the playoffs on the line, EC women will be reminded of last year as they face Mt. San Antonio College on Friday, needing a win to have a chance at making the playoffs.
“It is hard to take, the girls are frustrated and do not want to talk about it,” coach Jaymie Baquero said. “We are not losing but not winning at the same time.”
Losing to Pasadena City College 2-0, and tying L.A. Harbor College 0-0, the Warriors are haunted by the same fate as last season, putting their playoff hopes in Long Beach City College losing their final game.
Their last game at Murdock Stadium on Friday, Baquero is hoping that a big turnout of EC students and alumni will put more fight on the field and pull past the conference powerhouse that beat them 6-0 last month.
“Friday is a big game for us and we need to win to have a chance at making the playoffs,” Baquero said.
On the men’s side, they are currently on a 10 game losing streak, and winless since the end of September.
Last Friday against Harbor, they lost 2-1, giving up goals on penalties in the goal box twice in the first 20 minutes.
The first penalty was on sophomore defenseman Chris Lopez, frustrated at being beat on the play knocked a Harbor player down in the box.
The second penalty was handed out 10 minutes later, on a miscommunication between the goalie and freshman midfielder Scott Sinclair.
Scoring their first goal in the month of November, freshman Darren Dunn put the ball in the deep corner on a breakaway pass.
“It gets upsetting losing so much, some of the guys quit, stopped showing up,” Sinclair said. “You can see who really cares in the end.”
Losing at Pasadena on Tuesday exposed EC’s inability to adapt to the narrow and short field, giving up three goals in each half resulting in a 6-0 loss.
“The second half of the Pasadena game, we played mostly with the bench players, giving them time on the field,” Barragan said.
The men’s coaching staff is already looking to next season and planning on recruiting more heavily, casting this season as a done deal.
“Mt. SAC needs to win, so they will come out hard, only a few points separate them from Pasadena and Cerritos for the conference title,” coach Eddie Barragan said.
Looking to make it a fight on Friday, EC will practice on moving the ball quicker through a high-pressure midfield that Mt. SAC is known for.
“It has been a disappointing season, yet they have improved a lot,” Barragan said. “But mental mistakes have cost us many goals, it makes it hard to come back giving up goals off mistakes that could have been prevented.”
Most of the freshman still on the team will be returning for a second year, fueled by a more committed core of players including Sinclair.
“We have promising talent coming back for next year,” Sinclair said.