LAMC Men's Soccer finished its season with a tough 3-1 loss against No. 4-ranked Santa Ana Saturday in the first round of California Community College Athletic Association regional playoffs. The Eagles finished 3rd in the Western State Conference rankings and 13th in CCCAA Southern California to earn their first playoff bid since the 2016 season.
Santa Ana, who finished 3rd in the Orange Coast Conference, came back from behind against the Eagles at their home field to advance to Round 2 of Regionals.
Mission looked strong at the beginning of the game, with freshman forward Jose Salles scoring a goal within the first two minutes to put the Eagles up 1-0. Unfortunately, tight defense by the Dons kept the Eagles at bay for the remainder of the match.
The Dons managed to tie the game in the 16th minute on a penalty kick, and then scored the go-ahead goal before the half. The Eagles responded with some strong offensive drives in the second half but could not recover the lead, and they allowed one more goal in the 86th minute to put the game out of reach.
"It's hard to maintain a lead for 80-plus minutes of the game," first-year Head Coach Alberto Rosas said. "I think we weren't mature enough to hold that lead for that long of a time. That's what happens when you play nine freshmen and two sophomores, but those are learning experiences that will help us for next year."
Despite the loss, the Eagles can be credited with a competitive outing which reflected the momentum they picked up throughout their conference schedule, and Rosas believes it sets a precedent for the program in the years to come.
"We were playing against a good team that has a history of being in playoffs and being in the final four; they have a tradition of winning there," Rosas said. "For us to go there into that environment and compete and play the way that we did is encouraging for future players to come and see what this class and this staff and the direction of the program can do."
The program has plenty to be proud of this year besides its playoff appearance. In his first year of leadership, Rosas earned WSC Coach of the Year honors and doubled the team's wins from the 2017 season with his assistant coaches, Gus Gomez and Will Beard, while making his mark on the culture of LAMC Men's Soccer.
"When you take over a program that did not have much success prior to you, you really don't know where to start as a whole," Rosas said. "But the one thing that we try to do as a staff is to have our players buy into our beliefs, how we want them to be as athletes and students and individual young men. We felt that if we set that foundation early on in our season, everything we did after that would be easier to take on. That was kind of the journey that we all took."
The journey led seven Eagles soccer players to WSC All-Conference lists for outstanding performances on both defense and offense. First Team included freshman midfielder Ricardo Martinez, sophomore midfielder Andres Aguilar, and sophomore defender Elijah Patyk, who moved up from the 2017 Second Team list. Freshman forward Brandon Escobar and freshman midfielder Emilio Vallin earned Second Team nods, while Salles and freshman defender Diego Xol received Honorable Mentions.
Rosas believes his athletes showed tremendous promise this season and rose above circumstances to make a name for themselves in the conference and the region.
"You can see the transition from the Game 1 to Game 23 and how much the team changed in a positive way to achieve its goal, which was to be in the post-season. The boys bought in, and we ended up surpassing expectations that none of us really expected to have in our first year."