Coach Ross Sandberg’s Butte College Men’s Soccer team made the long trip south last Friday to face 2023 state semi-finalists Hartnell Panthers on their home turf in Salinas, CA.
 

The Roadrunners were looking to bounce back from a comprehensive 2-0 defeat at home to Evergreen Valley, and started the game on the front foot, with captain Elias Stingl grazing the crossbar with a towering header from a corner in the opening minutes of the tie.
 

A fiercely contested encounter threatened to boil over midway through the first half, as freshman winger Matteo DiGennaro clashed with a member of the opposition following a rash challenge in midfield, with both players receiving yellow cards for their parts in the incident.
 

The Roadrunners were able to convert their dominance on the stroke of half time, with sophomore Hayden Teixeira pouncing on a poor back pass from the Hartnell defense, before calmly rounding the goalkeeper and slotting the ball into the empty net. Sandberg’s team were good value for their lead at the break, having stifled any attacking threat posed by a well-drilled Hartnell outfit.
 

In the second half, the Panthers dialed up the intensity, applying pressure to the Butte defense and midfield who had previously been allowed to stroke the ball around at will. This unsettled the Roadrunners, and pressure eventually told in the 60th minute when the Butte defense failed to clear the danger in their own penalty area, leading to the concession of a penalty for Hartnell. However, the Roadrunners were let off the hook this time, with the Panthers’ penalty crashing off the post to safety.
 

Butte players were unable to capitalize on their luck however, as the defense failed to clear another seemingly harmless pass, allowing a sharp Hartnell attack in behind to draw the Panthers level with 20 minutes to go.
 

With the wind now firmly at their backs, the Panthers pushed hard to find a winner, forcing Butte into a number of uncharacteristically loose passes and touches. Lackluster defending once again proved to be the Roadrunners’ downfall, as the ball was forced home from a corner on 87 minutes, compounding Butte’s misery and completing a devastating collapse from a promising position.
I spoke to Butte captain Elias Stingl to get his thoughts on a disappointing 2-1 defeat for his side:  

Elias, a poor outcome and performance today, where do you think things went wrong in that second half?

“I think we allowed ourselves to be unsettled by the higher level of intensity, given that we knew they would come out fighting in the second half. We were guilty of too many mistakes, misplaced passes and poor decisions, and you can’t make them against a team of this quality, and they punished us for it.”
 

How hard will it be to pick yourselves up for the rest of the season?”
 

“Obviously this is a tough one to take as Hartnell are a great team and beating them would have done wonders for our ranking and confidence, but I have a lot of faith in this group that we can beat anyone on our day, and we won’t let our heads drop after one bad game.”
 

With a record of 2-3-1 for the season so far, the Roadrunners will look to return to winning ways with a trip to College of the Marin next Tuesday.