After the match, the team huddled up and heard their assistant coach Ever Morataya give the end of the season speech.

In it, he told the players to keep their heads up and to look at the positives of the season.

A late surge from the Warriors was not enough as the EC men’s soccer team were eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday. The visiting Southwestern College advanced to the next round of the postseason after defeating the Warriors 2-1 Saturday.

“It was a good season because we won conference for the first time since 1991,” assistant coach Ever Morataya said. “The team became a really nice group and we’re building the stepping stones for the future.”

The fourteenth seeded visitors got the ball rolling with an opening goal in the ninth minute. The goal was a tap in from a cross. The second was a strike from the Southwestern forward into the bottom left corner in the 15th minute. The early deficit stunned the Warriors and the home crowd alike.

“The reality check hit us when they scored the first one and then they got our head down,” Nunez said “We started arguing but we started picking it up towards the end.”

The score forced a response from EC who was rewarded for its attacking prowess with a goal just before halftime. Sophomore midfielder Branddon Cando found space inside the penalty box and passed to freshman defender Edgar Esquivel. The defender then tapped it into the net for the 2-1.

“Once the first goal came in we always stayed positive we thought we were going to keep working at it,” sophomore defender Garett Buchelli said. “All season we worked hard for and its got us this far and unfortunately this is where it ends for some of us but we just have to keep working for our future.”

The second half was completely dominated by the Warriors. The home team had nine shots and six corners to Southwestern’s four shots and one corner in the latter half.

“We feel very confident that we could do a comeback and win the second half we just couldn’t put it in,” Morataya said. “We were not sharp on the last pass that we missed that’s the main thing.”

Yellow cards drawn multiple times with the Warriors getting booked four times to the visitor’s three.

The offensive onslaught from the home team was not enough as time ran out on the Warriors and they were knocked out of the playoffs.

Sophomore midfielder Charlie Gonzales who led EC in assists this season was out injured for the game due to a torn quad muscle Morataya said.

This is the third consecutive season EC made it to the postseason. They were knocked out in the first round each time.