Unable to successfully follow Friday’s victory over Cal State Monterey Bay, the Gators came out today with a 0-2 loss against the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos.
The Gators were hit early with two goals scored against them within the first 10 minutes of play.
“We had it,” sophomore Ellie Ceja said. “We had it in us and we know that we should just come harder in the beginning (but) in the end, I guess we just got frustrated in ourselves.”
The amount of frustration the Gators had during the game can be shown in the statistics, as they finished the game with 17 foul calls against them, while the Broncos had nine.
Head coach Jack Hyde said he was disappointed with the team’s energy during the game.
“They seemed just flat today,” he said. “They came out flat and it resulted in a couple of two goals. They didn’t have the ‘working together’ sort of attitude that we’ve had in other successful games.”
The Broncos hurdled on the Gators unexpectedly at the beginning of the game, scoring their first goal after five minutes. Bronco senior Angela Garcia sneaked past the Gators defense for a one-touch goal from two yards away. Then, almost four minutes later, freshman Megan Kisslan scored the Broncos’ second goal heading, the ball over senior Gator goalkeeper Annicia Jones after receiving the cross in the air in a corner kick play.
Ceja said the team’s biggest challenge was not starting off strong at the beginning of the game.
“We showed it in the second half because we were more physical but in the first half we didn’t bring it right away so I think that kind of killed us towards the end of the game,” she said. “We should’ve played the way we played at the end the whole game.”
Although the Gators made several shot attempts on goal with some break-away runs, most plays were not executed completely as the Broncos trapped them in five offside calls.
To prepare for their last two games for the regular season, Ceja said she and her team will make sure to rest and recover fully for this weekend. She said they are confident that they can successfully take on Cal State Los Angeles and CSU Dominguez Hills.
“We always do better when we’re home and when we were at their home, it was neck and neck with both teams,” she said. “It’s gonna be two strong games finishing our season.”
The Gators will play their second to last regular season game against the Cal State L.A. 2.p.m. at Cox Stadium.
