De Anza college captures its third win of the season facing Feather River Sept. 13 by playing “some of the best attacking soccer they’ve played all year,” said Kulwant Singh, head coach and athletics director.
The game started off with a bang as freshmen forward Bobak Ohadi scored early in the first half. “It felt pretty good to score early because we came out with a lot of energy and it paid off because we worked really hard over the summer,” Ohadi said.
Throughout the first half, De Anza controlled the ball as well as the pace of the game. Toward the end of the first, freshmen forward Rajaee DeLane scored by dribbling past multiple Feather River defenders and driving in De Anza’s 2nd goal.
Despite being ahead 2-0, there was some worry in the second half on account of a drop off in the aggressive pace with which De Anza started. “What I would really like to see is being able to play 90 minutes of attacking soccer consistently,” Singh said.
Sophomore forward and midfielder Caio Ribeiro and freshmen forward Rajaee DeLane of De Anza suffered injuries, which slowed the pace of the game.
“There’s always worry when a player gets hurt but we have a lot of quality depth and we’ve been working really hard in the off-season so we don’t drop off too much,” said coach Roheet Sen. “It’s bad to get a player hurt but it’s also good because other players step up to the plate”
But De Anza managed to hold on to its lead even as Feather River scored a goal late in the second half.
Even though they’re fairly new team consisting of freshmen and only five returning sophomores, De Anza men’s soccer had a record of 3-0 and one tie going into Friday’s game against American River College. Singh said, “The team is still coming together, they’re learning how each other play and I think it’ll continue to get better as the season goes on.”
