TAFT, CA – Taft College Men's Soccer Team faced Fresno City College on Friday, October 13 at home. The game was set up to be a thriller of a match. The game did not disappoint as Emilio Gonzalez scored in the 85th minute. The game ended 1-0 as Taft Men's Soccer won their first game at home.
The game started with both teams going straight into it testing each other. The game looked even throughout the half with Taft getting the better chances of the half. Both teams kept battling, not giving up any crucial chances. Both teams went into half to reorganize and change up any tactics to try and win the game in the second half. The score at halftime was 0-0.
The second half was exactly what the fans came out to see. Both teams battled it out till the end. Taft played a great game keeping possession and going forward every chance they could to try and get that goal they were looking for all game. In the half, Fresno had one crucial chance that was blocked by an incredible slide tackle by captain, Daniel Zamora. In the last 5 minutes of the game Fresno tried to clear the ball away, but landed in Tony Santano's feet who played it back into Fresno City's half. The ball landed right in front of Emilio Gonzalez who had nothing else but a shot in mind. Emilio shot outside the box catching the goalie off his line to score an incredible crucial goal that helped Taft take the lead with 5 minutes left. The last 5 minutes Taft made sure to keep the scoreline zero. With an amazing performance from the defense, the Cougars were able to keep the lead and win the game 1-0. Brian Tufino kept a clean sheet as he has now kept 7 clean sheets in 13 games.
Overall, the match was an action-packed game with two top teams battling it out all game. Taft now moves on to a record of 4-1-8 and 2-0-3 in conference sitting in 2nd place. Men's Soccer captain Tony Santano had this to say after the game, "The team grinded and fought throughout the whole game showing their character. At the end that character showed a big impact in the game allowing us to get the result we wanted and beating a strong ranked team."
The next TC Men's Soccer game is at home against visiting Norco College on October 24 at 4:00 pm. Taft will continue its support of Breast Cancer Awareness month following up special events hosted by women's soccer and volleyball held on October 20.