COS Men’s Soccer won on Friday, September 9 against LA Mission, with an endgame scoreline of 2-0. They have now played four games this season and thus far have yet to lose a single one, with three of those four wins taking place at home.

The game against LA Mission was marked with COS dominance on the defensive side while keeping up solid offensive pressure throughout the game, which was made all the more impressive by the consistent 100+ degree weather that was sustained throughout the match.

Most important for this Giants team was sticking with one another through the heat and the hardships and being able to win along the way.

“We stayed focused and committed to the game plan, and we knew it was going to be a different, hard game for us. We understood the situation well, and we were able to execute as a team,” Head Coach Renato Bustamante said.

That focus and importance on sticking to the game plan were shown by players Adrian Lopez (30 minutes) and Ernesto Pacheco (82 minutes) who scored the only goals of the game.

Ernesto not only scored a goal this game but assisted Lopez in the first goal before scoring his own. Jesus Godinez assisted Pacheco in his goal in the final minutes of the game.

Both Lopez and Pacheco, who scored their third goals of the season today, are now tied on the team for the most goals. Godinez and Pacheco also acquired their first assists today, with many more to come in the approaching home games.

On another note, many people don’t realize the work that goes into the team week in and week out, and sitting next to the team on the sidelines for this game allowed me to get some insight into how they operate on a daily basis.

Most interesting to me, as someone who is not the most culturally aware when it comes to the game of soccer, were the verbal cues that were shouted out during the game. During times when the ball was being passed from player to player, coaches and players alike would shout things such as, “rhythm” and “time”.

Of course in every sport, coaches will give calls to the players as they do their work, but this to me, appeared to be more of a mental reminder rather than a physical suggestion.

Coach Bustamante gave a little insight on what those words mean to the players, saying, “we work very hard during the week in training, and those words have strong meanings to what we’re trying to do, so we try to encourage each other to do what is needed in the moment for us to be successful.”

Beyond that, COS Men’s soccer looks toward their future, which is set to be five straight home games, with the last one of them against CVC rival Fresno City on September 30. Their next home game will be on Tuesday, September 13, against Cosumnes River at 2 p.m.

Make sure to come out and support the home squad in their coming home games, as well as the rest of our great content on thecampusjournal.com.