After finishing 4-14-2 overall last season, including a dismal
0-12-2 record in the Coast Conference, Gavilan is seeking
consistency this year with a youthful, Gilroy-heavy squad
HOLLISTER — No one said starting a soccer program was going to be easy.
After an 18-year hiatus in which Gavilan College was without a men’s soccer team, the Rams have been in a building mode the last two years. After finishing 4-14-2 overall last season, including a dismal 0-12-2 record in the Coast Conference, Gavilan is seeking consistency this year with a youthful, Gilroy-heavy squad.
“We’re up and down this year,” Rams head coach Albert Marques said. “Sometimes we look really good and sometimes we look really inconsistent and we fall apart.
“For us, when we go to a game, we don’t know which team is gonna show up.”
Of the 20 players listed on Gavilan’s roster, 13 are freshmen and 14 hail from Gilroy, including mid Randy Moya and defender Jorge Montano — two of the Rams’ leaders on the field, Marques said. Hollister’s Cesar Perez has also been strong, the coach added.
But the team’s youth and a rash of early-season injuries — Marques said the Rams were without four starters during a game against West Hills last month — have led to Gavilan’s slow start to the 2009 season.
The Rams dropped four of their first five games to open the season, while a couple of close-call contests may have led to a low team morale.
In one game against Ohlone College, the Rams lost in the last four minutes of play, Marques said. In another game against San Joaquin Delta College, Gavilan had a one-goal lead late only to see it evaporate in the waning minutes of regulation. The game ended in a 1-1 tie.
But Marques said the team remains upbeat, and just recently have begun to turn the season around. Following its 2-0 loss to West Hills on Sept. 18, Gavilan scored a 5-1 victory over Mission College last Tuesday — its first win of the year.
Opening Coast Conference play last Friday, the Rams narrowly lost to Evergreen College by a 2-1 margin, but had several chances to tie the game in the second half.
“That’s the best we’ve played to date,” Marques said of the Evergreen game. “We played really nice soccer. We just came up a little short. But I think everyone was pleased with our progress.
“We’re definitely a tighter group (than last year) and the chemistry is a lot better right now.”
That may be because Marques employed the services of Armando Padilla, the head boys soccer coach at Gilroy High. Marques said Padilla has not only helped change the philosophy on the Rams, but also ease the transition from high school to college.
“We brought him on staff and a lot of the kids already knew him, so the transition was fairly easy,” Marques said.
Whether the Rams continue to develop remains to be seen. Gavilan fell behind by three goals to visiting Ohlone College on Tuesday en route to a 3-1 loss.
Victor Iracheta scored the lone goal for the Rams, which fall to 0-2 in the Coast Conference, 1-6-1 overall.
Gavilan will visit Skyline College on Friday for a 4 p.m. match.
“We just need to start winning or tying games and be competitive,” Marques said. “We’re definitely getting back together — a pretty tight group — and everyone is still believing, which is great.
“I think, as a team, we’re finally starting to come together.”
