Women’s Soccer Suffers Tough First Loss in 13 Game Streak to Skyline College
By Kyra Young
The top-ranked Rams women’s soccer team suffered a tough 0-1 loss to San Bruno’s Skyline College on Friday, Nov. 1, serving as a humble reset for the team that has remained undefeated for 13 straight games – a streak dating back to the beginning of September.
“Soccer can be cruel,” said Head Coach Jeff Wilson reflecting on the match. “But that’s just the way this sport is sometimes. You can have all the better chances and take lots of shots, but it might just not go your way that day.”
In a pregame interview, Wilson acknowledged the match would prove itself to be a tough test. “We played them twice last season – tied them in the regular season and then won against them in the first round of playoffs,” he said. “It’s always gonna be competitive because they’re a local rival. I’m expecting a good game, a good challenge.”
Wilson admitted that the game had a little more at stake, as Mike Sharabi, head coach of Skyline’s women’s soccer team, is a former athlete of Wilson’s from his time coaching at Skyline.
Heading into the 2024 season, Wilson ramped up the schedule for the Rams to face some of the best the league could offer, upholding his intention to battle-test his squad. One could argue the tactic has proven itself successful – the team has not only held an undefeated 13-game streak this fall, but has earned the No. 1 rank for the California Community College Athletics Association (3C2A) Coast-North Conference. The latest poll for United Soccer Coaches’ Junior College Division III Rankings has the squad placed at No. 4 in the nation.
“We’ve made some preseason goals, and we’re matching up with all those goals,” Wilson said. “The key is finishing out the conference schedule strong and trying to win a tenth conference championship.”
As the match versus Coast-North’s No. 3 Skyline approached, Wilson reaffirmed the roster’s depth of talent and how it has made for a seemingly overflowing cup when faced with last-minute hiccups, fatigue and injury throughout the season. The squad’s four captains – Arpan Bahia, Naré Avetian, Paige Pineda-Aliamus and Nadia Barron Santiago – have each served as great leaders throughout the season. Bahia, a central defender, has secured herself as the team’s “rock” in the back line despite her recent ankle sprains, while Pineda-Aliamus, a forward, is the Rams’ leading scorer with 17 goals under her belt so far this season.
Freshman goalkeeper Bailey Perales has also had a standout first season with the Rams. In the last eight games alone, Perales has only let in one goal. “She’s come up big – been very vocal, made some great saves,” remarked Wilson. “It took her some time to adjust, but she’s been great.”
The mild and sunny Friday made a great afternoon for a match as City College began trekking onto the turf to face their local rival. As players began warming up, Bahia was getting both her ankles wrapped alongside teammates Carmen Hinton and Julieta Juarez-Mendoza.
“We want to get an early lead,” replied Bahia when asked about the vision for the game. “We want to keep our high position in our rankings right now.”
Hinton, a center-back alongside Bahia in the defensive line, agreed. “We want to communicate and move it up through the middle – but we’re prepared. We have an idea of how they’re going to play and how we’ll approach them.”
The Rams held possession from the first minute on, finding easy switches of control from left to right, offense to defense and back again. Bahia and Hinton calmly held the back line and provided a reliable reset, building momentum off the outside movement of Kendall Carr and Daniela Del Carlo, who each found runs down the sideline and dumped the ball into the box multiple times.
The technical control of both Avetian and Sydney Grundland Lanuza in the center made for endless distributions through the middle and up the line to the offensive threats of Ashley Rabara, Angelina St. Denis, Pineda-Aliamus and Catherine Cordova Bobadilla.
Within the first 15 minutes of the game, the Rams had managed a handful of attempts on net and even more opportunities in the box – Pineda-Aliamus knew exactly where to be, head and foot, with every delivery from the outside and through the center, but Skyline’s defense proved to be a difficult barrier to penetrate. Both Pineda-Aliamus and Barron Santiago had several shots on goal throughout the game to no avail.
It was in the second half when Bahia went to clear a ball but it bounced off the opponent, landing almost perfectly for one of Skyline’s forwards to advance the ball to their teammate and tap it by Perales, giving Skyline a 1-0 lead over the Rams.
“We call that a run against play,” Wilson reflected in a post-game interview.
For the remainder of the second half, the Rams fought hard and again found an abundance of chances, including a shot in the last five minutes that found the fingertips of Skyline’s keeper, ricocheting off the crossbar. But Skyline held a low line of pressure and maintained their defensive line, preventing the Rams from finding success in the back of the net. The game came to a close with a loss for the Rams, bringing their current record to 12-2-2.
“Obviously you never want to see that happen,” remarked Wilson on the loss, who did not think the team could have done anything differently in the second half. “If you look at every stat line in that game, we dominated – except for goals. We didn’t finish early chances and it gave the other team the opportunity to organize themselves.”
Despite the sting of a loss on their home turf, Wilson acknowledged the silver lining. “The way I look at it is… it could be a good thing because it wakes us up and gets us refocused on what we need to do to reach the goals we have. This gives us an opportunity to look at how we can play against teams that might try and do that to us. We’re still in line to win a conference championship. We just need to take care of our own business,” Wilson said.
The Rams have three conference games ahead of them – a home game against Foothill on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 3 p.m., which will serve as their sophomore day to honor the hard work of their 14 second-year upperclassmen. They will then go on to play Las Positas on their home turf on Friday, Nov. 8 at 12:30 p.m. and a final game away at Cañada on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 12:30 p.m.