Corsairs Are Hot, but Can't Win in the Heat

Both Santa Monica College and Santa Barbara City College gave it their all this last Friday in the scorching heat at the Santa Barbara home game. The heat took it's toll on the players, coaches and fans at the Vaqueros stadium. The game was constantly stopped each ten minutes of the game for water breaks to assure the safety and health of all the players involved. However, it seemed like the heat took the energy of the game quickly. Two early goals and a fast pace to open the match fatigued many of the players which caused a long, slower tempo rest of the game. Neither team was able to take advantage of their opportunities and the game ended as a 1-1 draw.

Santa Barbara City College started the game with a quick long ball off the kickoff to their forwards, only mere seconds after the referee blew the whistle to signal the start. The Vaqueros were more aggressive during the first minutes. Small passing errors from the Corsairs defense left the SMC defense vulnerable. Even though Corsair’s goalkeeper, Weston Adkins, did a great job protecting SMC’s net throughout the entire game, he was not able to stretch far enough to stop Santa Barbara's Kyran Johal from scoring on a header.

Straight after Santa Barbara’s 8th minute goal, the Corsairs reacted by controlling the possession of the ball and worked their way forward. After only a few minutes of conceding the first goal of the game, the Corsairs caught the Vaqueros on their heels. Santa Monica College scored in the 12th minute when co-captain Danny Hulbert put the ball in the back of the net after a great pass from Carlos Sandoval.

Both teams took advantage of ball possession; they each stuck to their game plans and moved into each other’s half of the field. The lack of shot and passing accuracy from both teams did not allow either team the ability to go up on the scoreboard.

The great performance by SMC's goalkeeper, Weston Adkins who stopped many shots and also allowed a quick counter attack for the Corsairs constantly. Great ball movement from Santa Monica allowed Danny Hulbert the ability to receive passes, pivot with the ball, run straight upfield or either shoot the ball. SMC started to build momentum at the end of the first half, but they could not ever find a way to put the ball in the back of the net again.

“Our attacking play in the final third must be better,” said Corsair’s coach Tim Pierce when asked on what should be improved. “We had so many opportunities to not only score a goal, but created scoring goal chances and even promising moments were we didn’t get a shot off,” added coach Pierce.

During the second half, both teams pushed into the up third of the opposing teams' side of the field, but the finishing touches were not there. Unable to get a ball into the box, Santa Monica seemed to play safer, trying to make the least errors possible. The heat blew away the energy of most of the players. Not even fresh substitutes were able to break out and create many chances against each other’s defense.

In the end, a final score of one goal for each team seemed like a fair result. “We did a really good job drawing level. We had a better play on the second half, but goals are hard to come sometimes. It is a fair and decent result,” said Coach Pierce on the ending score of the game.

This adds to a third tie by SMC on the season. The Corsairs now have a record of eight wins and one loss with three ties.

The Corsairs will face Citrus College on October 13th at Santa Monica College.