Despite an early lead, the San Diego City College men’s soccer team lost, 3-2, at home against Pacific Coast Athletic Conference-leading Cuyamaca on Oct. 27.

City held its 1-0 lead for the first 62 minutes of play until Cuyamaca scored three goals in the span of 18 minutes. 

But the two-goal deficit only energized the Knights more, with more pushes into the goalie box and shots in the final minutes. 

After midfielder Isaaz Velazquez scored a penalty kick in the 86th minute, City fought for a 3rd goal to tie but fell just short as the referee blew the game-ending whistle. 

“Cuyamaca is always a great team … It was a tough one,” Velazquez said. “We fought back and forth. It’s not the result we wanted.”

Velazquez scored both City goals against Cuyamaca, tallying 22 this season to lead the California community colleges rankings in goals scored. The next-highest scorer in the conference has 10 goals.

Velazquez was also named PCAC Player of the Week for the second time just the week before.

“I like to motivate my teammates because a lot of them don’t have confidence,” said Velazquez, who is also team captain. “Coach always tells me, ‘You’re a big role on the team. So if you work hard, the team’s gonna work hard and we’re gonna go somewhere together.’”

“The boys played their hearts out and as a coach, that’s all you can ask them to do,” head coach Chris Tolles said. “We’ve become a totally different team from earlier in the season.”

The Knights’ current record is 4-5, a significant improvement on their preseason record of 2-6-1.

City is ranked 5th in the PCAC conference with three games left in the season, while Cuyamaca leads the league with a 7-2, 10-5-3 record.

Knights will next play at Southwestern (3-3-2, 5-6-5) on Nov. 3 at 3 p.m.

“The season’s not finished,” Velazquez said, “so these three games that we have left, (we will) just finish them with nine out of nine points.”