Folsom Lake College defeated the Cosumnes River College men’s soccer team at home in a head-to-head battle on Friday with a final score of 3-2.

The game’s tempo was slow at first, with each team sizing each other up during respective plays.

“The team that plays most like themselves is the team that comes out on top. The exercises we ran were to give them a certain set of confidence, but the guys were still a little nervous,” head coach Ron Preble said.

In the first half, FLC scored the first goal, setting the tone for the game.

“Since it’s a crosstown rival, their energy got to us,” sophomore goalie Nicholas Molinari said.

The game’s tempo slowed for a bit, but then sophomore winger Camden Locke, locked in a header to put CRC back into the game, making it 1-1.

“The most complicated part was us over-complicating things too much. We just needed to get the ball and play fast,” Locke said.

CRC would then use this momentum to keep up the pace of their fast attacks and sophomore left wing Aidan Evangelatos would score another goal, putting CRC up 2-1.

“Camden started off the game pretty well and he kept the energy high for me to come in and add on to it, setting me up for success,” said Evangelatos.

Soon after Evangelatos’s goal, FLC would follow up to set the score to 2-2.

The rest of the half would then continue to be a battle of who has control over the ball with neither team being able to score a goal until half-time.

“We were a little nervous, but we found our way into the game,” Preble said. “In the first half, we were average overall and could’ve been up a couple of goals but we tied instead.”

In the second half, the game picked up pace drastically with each team looking to apply pressure on each other.

Thirty-five minutes of back-and-forth play would then go on until FLC scored a goal making it 3-2.

“We gave them too much respect. We own this field and we own this team. We were too nonchalant and we didn’t play up to the caliber we could’ve,” Evangelatos said.

With 10 minutes left to spare, CRC would then start to dig deep into their plays, trying to make one more goal to put themselves back in.

“It’s a matter of lifting each other up and giving the right criticism in the right way, it can be difficult to do that but when you bring each other up that’s how you get back into the game,” Locke said.

CRC played until the last few seconds, but ultimately time was not on their side and FLC took the game.

FLC then celebrated their win on our field by filming a video and screaming to the top of their lungs.

Although the men’s soccer team had lost, they now look forward to the next game leaving this one in the past.

The next game is against Santa Rosa and CRC’s current standing in the Big 8 Conference is 2-2.

“Santa Rosa is coming into our house again and from here on, no more losses. I just got to get ready for our next victim,” Molinari said.