On September 30, 2022, the COS Men’s Soccer team lost their first game of in-conference play against the Fresno City Rams with a score of 1-0. While it was very tightly contested throughout the whole game, COS simply wasn’t able to capitalize on the pressure they exerted on the pitch, resulting in the loss.

Head Coach Renato Bustamante commented after the loss on this pressure, and how COS ended up with the loss, saying,

“It’s just the game. The hardest thing to do is to put the ball in the back of the net when the games are tough and tight. We did what we thought we needed to do to win this game, and unfortunately we couldn’t put it in the back of the net, [so we] move forward.”

25 minutes into the first half, Fresno City Forward Andrew Huerta was able to knock in the first and only goal of the game, while COS was left out to dry in terms of offense for the day, other than a few shots on the opposing goal post.

This game marks the fourth time in the last four weeks in which COS didn’t win; they have tied twice and lost twice in this span. Over this period, they have also been outscored 7-3. This marks a stark contrast to the first five games of the year, in which they won all of them and outscored their opponents 18-4.

This mostly can be attributed to the difficulty of the schedule that COS is having to contend with, with all of the last four teams being exceptionally good opponents that can rival the Giants in talent.

According to the Coach though, what they can’t be rivaled in is their character, and willingness to go out there and compete, “[I’m proud of] the character, you can tell they’re a team and that they’re ready to go, they’re hungry and want to make it happen, so we’ll just take it one day at a time.”

Like the coach said, the team will take their season one day at a time, and their next game will take place on Tuesday, October 4, on the road against a good Merced College team, who is 7-2 thus far in the season.

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