With only two weeks of preparation, and an almost all freshmen team, the San Diego City College Knights lost the first game of the season, 5-3, against the Long Beach City College Vikings at home on Aug. 28.

The team had a strong first half starting with a surprising goal during the first few minutes of the game. Freshman forward Francisco Contreras received a foul on the penalty area and retrieve a penalty scoring the first goal for the Knights.

This early goal impacted the Vikings and despite their efforts they couldn’t make any concrete moves and 10 minutes later, from a play that started before the halfway line, Contreras scored again leaving a 2-0 on the scoreboard.

The Vikings had more shots on goal than Knights but were unable to score. They kept pushing Knights defense and during the last 15 minutes their tactic was onfall while Knights’ was defensive keeping Vikings away from the net.

The second half was a setback for the Knights. They kept their defense up for 11 minutes when sophomore midfielder Joel Atilano scored the first goal for the Vikings.

Nine minutes later, freshman forward Jose Garcia got another goal for the knights after redeeming a foul and making a free kick.

Vikings come back to the game carrying out two free kicks and scoring two consecutive goals by freshman midfielder Andrew Hernandez and freshman defender Hector Rojo tying the game 3-3.

During the last minutes of the game Vikings dominated and scored two more goals by a retrieved penalty and freshman Bryan Majano ending the game with 5-3 in favor of the Vikings.

Captain Francisco Contreras mentioned the Knights had a really good start but couldn’t be consistent during the entire match.

“I feel we’re going to have a great season; we just need to work in our last 30 (minutes of the game) fitness-wise and just have to know each other, which we haven’t lately,” he said.

The Knights soccer team is mainly freshmen players with the exception of sophomore midfielder Shetty Anush. The team started playing together two weeks ago and Knights Head Coach Milton Hidalgo attributed the inexperience to the team’s loss.

“In the last 30 (minutes), our inexperience, our youth showed,” Hidalgo commented. “We didn’t manage as a team as we should have.”

Vikings Head Coach Cameron Beaulac was proud of his teams performance and victory over the Knights.

“Knights were a strong opponent… being 2-0 in the first half was an overly difficult situation. I’m very proud on how my players stood up,” Beaulac said. “It will be a tough situation when Knights come back to the match (at Long Beach).”