This past Friday’s season-opening matches didn’t lead to marks in the “Win” columns for either of the Angelina College soccer teams. The Roadrunner women fell 5-1 and the men 3-0 to a pair of defending national champion squads from Richland College.
Nevertheless, head coach Freddy Drago has already moved past those games, focusing on the positives and on this weekend’s opponents. AC’s teams both open conference play on Saturday against Blinn College before hosting another non-conference foe, Northeast Community College (Nebraska) on Sunday.
Drago said he and his staff spent this week using Friday’s losses to make the necessary adjustments for the upcoming back-to-back doubleheaders.
“We saw we can be very competitive,” Drago said. “I thought both our teams played very well, but both just ran out of gas in the second half. That’s the overall take from those matches. We were right there with both those teams. The women were even at 1-1 at the half, and the men were in a scoreless draw at the half of their game. It was a heck of a first half for both teams.
“Moving forward from those games, we look at the goals we allowed in the second half, and we look at some of our missed opportunities from the first half when we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. We’ll fine-tune those elements.”
From the first week, Drago has stressed the importance of getting his players more time to work together to build a more cohesive unit. That remains the focus of this week’s preparation.
“Mostly, and we discussed this last week, it’s a matter of getting our players more playing time together,” Drago said. “Friday was the first time facing a different opponent. Before that, all our players had done was play against each other. This year, instead of scheduling a scrimmage in the middle of the week, we used those three days as part of a full week of training and work.
“Nobody likes to lose the season’s first match, but there were plenty of positives for us to take away. Overall, we were pleased with where we are and where we think we’ll be able to go moving forward.”
Blinn’s men lost to the same Richland College team by a 5-1 score on Sunday, while the women lost 3-0 to the Thunderducks.
“Saturday’s games, it doesn’t matter what we do or don’t know about Blinn,” Drago said. “It’s the first conference game, and we’ve got to go out and get that ‘W’ regardless of how our opponent looks. That’s the mentality our teams have had all week, and that’s how our teams have been preparing.”
Saturday’s matches kick off with the women at 5 p.m., while the men will follow at 7 p.m. Sunday, the teams again start with the women at 5 p.m. and the men at 7 p.m. All games will take place at Jase Magers Field in Lufkin.
The e-mail address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.
