After a rigid defensive effort in the first half, the De Anza College women’s soccer team allowed three second-half goals to Ohlone College, resulting in a 4-0 loss for the Dons on Friday Oct. 2.

The Ohlone College Renegades struck early in the first half with a goal at the 10 minute mark and their relentless offensive attack kept De Anza on their heels through the first 45. But the Dons matched the Renegades’ physical offense with stifling defensive play and sound goalkeeping from De Anza goalie Sena Harlley, who had six saves on the day.

Starting midfielder and team captain, Reem Nofal, said she felt good about her team’s play on Friday, but blamed a lack of consistency for the loss.

“This is one of the games we played really well, but it’s just as certain points we just gave up goals,” Nofal said. “So as a team we’re improving but we need to fix our consistency.”

The Dons went into halftime trailing 1-0.

“We felt good at halftime, we were down 1-0 at half,” Head coach Cheryl Owiesny said. “I thought we could do it. I thought we could make something happen.”

Unfortunately the good feelings were short lived, De Anza continued to struggle on the offensive and could not produce a quality possession. Head coach Cheryl Owiesny said the lack of offense forced her to push her team forward, positioning the backline up field, hoping it would lead to points on the board.

Ohlone took advantage of this adjustment and scored a goal off of a header from one of their forwards.

At the 69th minute, an Ohlone striker sailed a long-range shot just over the fingertips of an outstretched Harlley, underneath the crossbar and in for a goal. The Dons faced a 3-0 deficit with just shy of 20 minutes left to play.

“We’re down players, we’re down four starters and that hurts,” coach Oweisny said. “It hurts because the fatigue factor kind of set in, in the second half.”

The real dagger came at the end of regulation, when another long-range shot blazed past the De Anza goalkeeper and into the corner of the net for the final goal of the night.

Although the Dons did not score a single goal, Nofal’s belief in her team held strong to the end.

“I don’t think it was ever out of our reach for us,”  Nofa said. “We could’ve come back second half, we could’ve came (sic) back after the fourth goal in the last minute.”

Defender Patricia Juarez expressed the same confidence in her team after a day that saw no offensive production.

“If we can pick it up as a team and not just individually, we’ll be fine this season,” Juarez said.

Coach Oweisny goal for the rest of the season:

“We have to win them,” Oweisny said. “We have to win them here on out.”

Catch the De Anza Dons when they host the Evergreen Valley College Hawks on Tuesday Oct. 13 at 1:30 p.m.