The eighth seeded Roadrunners were unlucky in their second round Southern California Regional match falling 3-0 to the number one seeded Mt. Sac on Nov 26.  The victory gives the Mounties another step towards their fourth State title.

After losing their last conference match 1-0, the Foothill Champs got their swagger together and had a strong showing against the Orange Empire Conference Champs Orange Coast in the first round of the SoCal playoffs.

The Roadrunners took on the Orange Coast College Pirates on Nov 23 for the second time this season.  They lost their first meeting Sept. 4, 3-1, but Rio took the playoff game, 1-0 to advance to the Mt. Sac game.

Clearly Rio Hondo was the young underdog team coming into the Mt. Sac match…. and they played like it.

Although Rio played strong for the first few minutes, Mt. Sac was quick to capitalize on simple mental mistakes from the Rio defense that had almost been flawless the entire season allowing only one goal in conference play.

Foothill Conference Coach of the Year Orlando Brenes said “we tried to work on the psychological aspect of playing such a great program, and it didn’t work out”

On a poorly cleared ball by the Roadrunners, Luis Arrellano found the ball at his feet and didn’t hesitate to take a strong shot from distance to give his team the lead, 1-0.

As the half was ending it was again the Rio Hondo Defense that gave up a foul just outside the 18 for Misael Osorio who put the Mounties up 2-0 at the end of the first half.

Despite being down 2-0, Rio Hondo looked to still have some life in them coming into the second half and the only hopes they had were that this 2-0 deficit –the worst lead to have – would work in their favor.

It was Arrellano once more who made it 3-0 early in the second half and it sealed the victory for Mt. Sac.

Although this season has officially come to an end for Rio Hondo, it was a prosperous season to say the least.

On Sept 5 the Rio Hondo Men’s soccer team was not ranked in the So Cal Poll and much less the State Poll.

On Oct 30 however the Rio Hondo Men’s soccer team was ranked as high as third in So Cal and fourth in the state, surprising everyone but themselves.

The Road Runners went 7-1 in conference and 13-5-5 overall and allowed only 19 goals all season with a long 14 game unbeaten streak that stretched from Sept 4 to Nov 5.

To top off the conference title Coach Brenes was named Foothill Conference Coach of the year and his sophomore keeper Edward Maya was named conference Player of the year.

But that wasn’t all. Freshmen Alejandro Casas and Amisraim Valdez,  sophomores Miguel Mendoza  and Jaime Ayala   were named to the  first team all-conference.

And four other freshmen were named second team all conference: Erick Magana, Nicolas Andrade, Erick Barranco, and Makoto Shoji.

Congratulations to the Men’s 2013 Foothill Conference Champions.