The men’s soccer team ended their two-game losing streak on Sept. 20, winning 2-0 against Bay Area rival Contra Costa.

The first half started off slowly with injuries for players on both teams. Thirty minutes into the game, sophomore midfielder Francisco Cruz re-aggravated a muscle strain that he had received in 2007 and was forced to sit out for the rest of the game.

Both teams continued to play strong defense throughout the first half resulting in a 0-0 tie by the end.

It was not until the second half of the game that things began to kick off. The Hawks worked on their offense and took advantage of Contra Costa’s errors.

Sophomore defender Julian Vallejo scored the first goal of the game with 30 minutes left, giving the Hawks a small lead.

By the end of the second half freshman forward Marek Albert scored the second goal putting the final score at 2-0 in favor of CRC.

The players made it clear that their victory against Contra Costa was no easy win.

“[We] did better than good but not great. We played to win,” Albert said.

Head coach Ron Preble shared similar feelings about the performance of his team.

“We probably should have had some [goals] in the first half. The guys are still having a hard time grasping the offense, “ Preble said. “[Contra Costa] gave us some problems but they were too predictable. The heat probably got to them. It even gets to some of our players that live in it.”

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