Crosstown rivals San Diego Mesa College and Southwestern College faced off at Merrill Douglas Stadium as Southwestern shuts down Mesa in a 0-2 victory.
Coming into this game, both Mesa Olympians and Southwestern Jaguars were winless in their last three games.
The game kicked off with the Jaguars dominating the ball possession, forcing a save out of Olympians goalkeeper Enrique Ramos Jr in the early minutes if the game.
In the 8′ minute, Jaguars Derek Palencia scored a stunning goal from outside the box to give the Jaguars the lead early in the match.
Four minutes later, the Jaguars tested Olympians Ramos Jr with another outside the box shot, but he caught it.
Even though the Jaguars had more ball possession, they weren’t able to get past the Olympians’ backline of defenders for the rest of the half.
Minutes before halftime in the 43′ minute, Olympians defender Nathan Morales kicked a long pass to forward Andre Galvao who was fouled inside the penalty box. After getting fouled, Olympians Galvao stepped up to take the penalty but missed skying it up high.
The first half ended with the Olympians down 0-1, with the ball possession that the Olympians had in the first half, they couldn’t get the offense running. Misplacing passes, not being able to pass the ball consistently to attackers and getting overrun in the midfield.
Coming out of halftime the Olympians looked more energized, carrying the ball more forward with confidence and getting better passes out to attackers.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars didn’t come out with too much aggression as they did in the first half but were still providing danger to the Olympians defense and midfield.
In the 58′ minute, Jaguars Esteban Gonzalez outpaced Olympians Daniel Araujo in a 1v1 race to score the Jaguars’ second goal of the game.
After the second goal, the Olympians tried to score but couldn’t execute on passes to keep the offense flowing.
The game slowed down after the Jaguars goal, both teams tried making plays happen but couldn’t execute when it mattered.
Minutes before the end of the game, Olympians Ramos Jr protected his left post to deny a goal scoring opportunity.
The Jaguars end their winless streak as they win their fifth game of the season, while the Olympians fall to their fourth loss in a row.
Even though the Jaguars scored two goals in the game, most of their shots were off target or soft shots straight to the keeper. Olympians Ramos Jr made three saves, while Jaguars goalkeeper Isaiah Taggart faced zero shots on target keeping a clean sheet.
The Olympians failed to get rhythm going all game long to threaten Southwestern’s defense.
After the game, Olympians left winger Jaxen Torbensen expressed his thoughts on what went wrong with the team.
“We couldn’t pass the ball. We weren’t playing as a team, so we just struggled to get momentum going, and we just couldn’t get it going at the end.” Torbensen said.
Next the Olympians will take on city rivals San Diego City and the Jaguars will take on Palomar.
