Citrus College men’s soccer team lost their season opener 3-1 against El Camino College.
The Owls are coming off their first conference championship, finishing 5-1-4 in conference play, scoring 15 goals in 10 games.
They fell short in regionals against Mt. SAC, losing 5-0.
The Owls may have trouble repeating their conference winning season without conference player of the year Sergio Gonzalez, who is not returning.
“That is the biggest disappointment,” head coach Fred Bruce-Oliver said. “Conference player of the year and he didn’t make grades.”
The Owls only have four of 14 players returning from last season. In college sports, coaches commonly struggle with player departure. Community college turnover may be even higher. Players either move on to the next level, graduate or miss grades.
Sophomore Eduardo Contreras-Herrera will be the captain of the team this season.
Bruce-Oliver expressed concern over the amount of freshman players in this year’s roster.
“The reason why we won last year, we had good players first of all, but we had mostly sophomores,” Bruce-Oliver said. “I was expected to have 14 sophomores this year, but this being a JC you know what happens.”
Even with a team full of freshman, some have caught the coach’s eye.
Reymundo Orrosquieta is a first-year player, but has been putting just as much work in as a seasoned player.
“He’s working as hard as anyone if not harder,” Bruce-Oliver said. “He is a good example for the team.”
Coaches manage new players in all sports, but with a majority of freshmen, there is no telling how this season will end.
“At this level if you are playing first-year guys against second-year guys… it is not an even match,” Bruce-Oliver said.
Bruce-Oliver will be returning for his 21st season with the Owls. But even the veteran coach said he cannot predict the outcome this season.
“It’s sports you never know what is going to happen, anything can happen,” Bruce-Oliver said.
The Owls scored 32 goals in 20 games with 23 assists last season. They averaged 10.6 shots per game.
Their next game is at 4 p.m. Aug. 31 at Chaffey College.
