On Oct. 3, Mt. SAC men’s soccer played its first conference match against the El Camino Warriors, they struggled to find the back of the net as they fell short facing the number one school in the country.

Mt. SAC’s defense couldn’t keep up with the Warrior’s offense that maintained possession of the ball throughout the entire game. As a result of the defensive struggles, sophomore goalie Daniel Ramirez (1) had an extended workload and finished the game with six saves to minimize the Warriors’ offensive barrage.

“I think we lacked a little bit of heart, a little bit of intensity, you know we’re playing the number one team in the country,” Head Coach Juan Sanchez said. “This is the third time we play this year against the number one team and this is probably our worst performance of the year.”

Mt. SAC started the game defending an aggressive Warriors offense but inducing fouls from outside the goalkeeper’s box gave the Warriors the opportunity to take free kicks. The Warriors struck first at the 30-minute mark on a free kick when Warriors freshman midfielder Alex Salas (22) curved a ball past the defensive wall and placed it past Ramirez for an unassisted goal.

Eight minutes later, the Warriors cracked the defense again when freshman midfielder Aldahir Rua (15) netted a goal and put the Warriors up 2-0. The lead quickly demoralized the home team’s offense and it never found its rhythm as it finished the match with only four shots on goal throughout the 90 minutes.

The Warriors started the second half by adding to their lead and scoring six minutes into the half.

El Camino midfield launched a ball towards its front end and managed to get it past the Mt. SAC defense. Warriors freshman forward Shingo Nakano (9) used his speed to catch up to the ball and struck it past Ramirez on a 1-on-1 matchup with the goalie to make it a final score of 3-0.

After the third goal, the offense managed to hit its stride and take control of the match, but fouls and sloppy play deterred any second-half comeback attempt for Mt. SAC.

With 1:35.0 into the match, Mt. SAC freshman midfielder Allan Rosales (24) earned a red card on a contested play on the sidelines. Rosales tripped the El Camino player after the ball was called out of bounce.

They would finish the rest of the match with one player down.

Ramirez had two vital saves in the last 10 minutes of the game that came off errors from the Mt. SAC defense inside the box.

“It goes back to the level of responsibility of doing your job at the best possible intensity and desire and hard work and I just think that today we were flat,” Sanchez said. “Hopefully they learn from it and every game, especially when it’s a negative result, gives us an opportunity to learn.”

Mt. SAC’s next match will be another conference match, this time away against LA Harbor on Oct. 6.