Rio Hondo mens soccer team (12-4-5 ; 7-1) ended one win shy of a picture perfect season on Nov. 5, as they hosted San Bernardino college (11-2-6 ; 4-2-2) at home.

The Roadrunners came up short losing 1-0 in their last conference match in a game that was lost before it even began.

For the first time in their 8 home games the Roadrunners came out flat right from the whistle. This game was not lost on the pitch but instead lost mentally. Although they were physically ready to play their minds were somewhere else. Rio Hondo came out over confident and showed it early on in the match with their lack of production.

The first half was an uncontrolled match that was played almost entirely at center pitch. The Roadrunners had only 8 shots in the first half with a merely 3 of them being on target. Thanks to the Rio Hondo Defense, San Bernardino was limited to 6 shots that were non-threatening to Goalkeeper Edward Maya because they were attempted from distance.

The Roadrunners did have some opportunites to score in the half but were unlucky.

In the second half the Wolverines came out sluggish with only 3 shots the entire half, but the Roadrunners were unable to take full advantage of them. Rio played a much better second half unveiling their talent and dominating the midfield by creating more opportunities for themselves.

But it was going to take more than talent to win the game.

Mid-way through the second the unthinkable happened. The Wolverines were able to make their way around the Rio Hondo defense –who had shut-out every team they had faced in conference– to go up 1-0.

The Roadrunners responded with a very up-tempo style of play that they are usually accustom to doing from the beginning, but this time they were forced into that style of play and it showed . Losing 1-0 with 20 minutes left to play the young Rio Hondo team was unfamiliar with this situation.

Rio forced 15 shots on goal in the second half and all of them were after being down 1-0.

The insufficiency of mental discipline and composure cost them their 8-0 clean sheet conference shutout.

But one bad game cannot define an entire season. The Rio Hondo Roadrunners are the 2013 Foothill Conference Champions with a 7-1 record. Although they didn’t want to end the season on a bad note they did manage to accomplish what they set out to do.

Entering this 2013 season Rio Hondo was not ranked in socal and much less state. The Roadrunners have been the underdog all season with their lineup that consisted of mainly freshmen.  Coach Brenes says that “bottom line is, we won the championship and I’m proud of them, and I’m very happy for that because its been three years and they deserve that recognition.”

Rio Hondo started the season at Cerritos on Aug 27 with a loss.  In their first 6 games they went  2-3-1. After that those shakey first 6 games there was no turning back. The Roadrunners hadn’t lost a game since Sept. 4  which added up to their 14 game unbeaten streak.

Unfortunately everything comes to an end, but luckily for Rio Hondo they can enjoy this conference title a little longer and hopefully get over this regrettable loss quickly as they have the playoffs to look forward to.

Congratulations to the 2013 Foothill Conference Champions.