No. 21 state ranked Skyline men’s soccer took a 0-0 draw against the No.11 De Anza College Mountain Lions on Tuesday, Oct. 14, in a defense-heavy matchup.
The prime factor that played a role for both sides was foul calls from the referees over almost the entire game, which coaches and players voiced their issues with.
Skyline head coach Gabe Saucedo said that while he felt the referees had bad calls during the game, the Trojans handled their emotions well and did not blame the team’s draw on any of the calls.
“I thought we did a good job of keeping our emotions tempered, but I thought the [referee]…was poor on the day,” Saucedo said. “It will happen…we just have to realize that we can’t leave it to the hands of the referee, we have to do our part and score goals.”
Skyline freshman forward Anthony Campos also said that he felt the referees poorly called the game, specifically in regards to foul calls. He said the referee’s calls were soft and often went the Mountain Lions’ way.
“It was just a lack of calls, I felt like it was a bit one sided at times with the call, the most controversial call being the penalty call in the second half,” Campos said. “Apart from that it was just a couple cheap fouls, or things that maybe shouldn’t have been called fouls,” Campos said.
The controversial call in question was an offsides call during a free kick for Skyline sophomore defender Eric Barajas that did not count his goal.
Skyline was in foul trouble throughout the game, but during the second half the Trojans received two foul calls within the span of two minutes.
These consistent foul calls put Skyline’s freshman goalkeeper Matias Kramer in several situations where he had to keep the team in the game, as he faced multiple corner kicks. Kramer ended the game having recorded two saves and zero goals scored by De Anza.
“I feel like I had decent positioning and I setup corner [kicks] well, I definitely feel like I could have done more in the attacking part of it… I could have done better distributing,” Kramer said.
Saucedo said the team’s defensive effort as a whole kept the game close and overall was executed well against De Anza.
“We were organized around the box, we cleared balls well today, we didn’t give up second chance on set pieces which was massive, so we have been working on it and it helped us secure a tie today,” Saucedo said.
While the defensive effort was a highlight for the Trojans, the lack of offense was an issue that kept the Trojans from finishing with a victory. Kramer talked about the Trojans’ need for better decision making near the goal.
“There was just a lack of the right choices in some moments for us, we had a couple chances, we needed to get a couple more and we just didn’t find that final pass enough,” Kramer said.
Saucedo echoed this issue as he said the offense was close in the second half, but just couldn’t take advantage of their open shots.
“Our offense was lacking in the first half, I thought we turned it on in the second half and created more opportunities,” Saucedo said. “We got some clear chances on goal that we just didn’t capitalize on and I think that was the difference between a win and tie.”
The Trojans’ non-conference draw with the Mountain Lions marks the team’s third draw as the record now stands at 7-3-3. The team’s next game will be a conference matchup against Cabrillo College.
