The Santa Rosa Junior College men’s soccer team (9-1-2) lost its first game of the 2025 season, falling 1-0 in a nailbiter against Folsom Lake College (7-3-1) at home Oct. 10.
The Bear Cubs started offense-heavy while Folsom Lake locked the ball down in a triangle keepaway outside their own goal.
SRJC nearly scored several times in the first five minutes, but a six-player mob of Folsom Lake defenders made possession nearly impossible.
“We always like playing [Folsom],” midfielder Austin O’Neal said. “They’re one of our better conference opponents.”
Folsom Lake played keepaway for the first 15 minutes before one of their players attempted footwork too fancy, fumbling the ball into their backline.
Thirty-one minutes into play, Folsom Lake midfielder Issac Harrison, assisted by Thualfikar Alaskati, scored the first and only goal in an extended assault carried over from the penalty kick they missed three minutes earlier.
The first half of this frenzied game nearly ended in a draw, when SRJC left back Raffino Lanford’s sideline push was interrupted by a stray Folsom Lake player slamming them both into the ground.
SRJC picked up in the second half, with increasingly aggressive, frequent shots at Folsom’s goal — occasionally at the expense of team coordination.
A yellow card 50 minutes in kicked SRJC into overdrive, launching an onslaught of harder and harder plays, wearing away Folsom’s defenses while, at certain points, neglecting their own.
An hour had passed with no home goal, and the crowd began to get restless. Whenever a Folsom Lake player fell down, a significant chunk of the audience would jeer “get up” in protest of their running of the clock.
Tensions mounted when Folsom Lake defender Ty Hunter received a second yellow, and subsequent red card, during an inaudible conversation with the referee following yet another tumble with the turf.
Eighty-seven minutes in, a cavalier shot against Folsom’s goal resulted in Folsom Lake defender Ajay Roskoski going down with an injury.
Play resumed one minute, 34 seconds into stoppage time, giving SRJC a chance at leaving with a draw. However, after the Folsom Lake goalie stuffed a shot on goal and an impressive header launched the ball over the fence, time expired and SRJC took their first loss of the season.
“It was bound to happen,” O’Neal said. “No team’s perfect, and we’re just gonna move on from this.”
The Bear Cubs play San Joaquin Delta in their next conference game Oct. 14.
