The men’s soccer team last played Prairie State College; since then they have played three games that have left them with their current standing of 0-10.

They visited Morton College on Sept. 19 which resulted in a 3-0 loss. According to Head Coach Salvador Acevedo, Morton’s always good competition. The team has lost players since the beginning of the season for varied reasons; so for this game, they traveled with only 13 players. The coaching staff was pleased with the results considering who they were playing.

“They did a really good job of stepping up to the plate and really taking the situation in a positive light,” said Acevedo about players who were allowed more playing time than they’ve previously had.

They faced Madison College on Sept. 24. Within the first minute, they were scored on.  An obstacle of the Spartans is maintaining their composure when they are scored on, “We tend to break down once the first goal from the other team comes in. At the half when the coaches can talk to us again, we regain our composure,” said Pedro Hernandez, sophomore, and captain of the team.

For this game, it proved to be difficult to do just that as Madison managed to score 12 points on the Spartans, and left them scoreless.

“That was the toughest loss for me as a coach, for the guys, and as a whole,” Acevedo said.

The Spartans were finally on home turf for their game against McHenry County College on Sept. 26. The pressure was on as McHenry pushed forward and goalkeeper, Eder Barajas completed two saves right off the bat.

As the first half progressed one of McHenry’s forwards managed to outrun his defender and complete three breakaways and score on them, which brought his team to 3-0. McHenry was able to score again, but as the first half came to a close, Ricardo Nava scored to lead his team into the new half with a score of 1-4. His goal was necessary and useful in lifting his teammate’s spirits.

“The goal that we scored before the half ended, that motivated us to keep going forward and once we saw the second goal come in it motivated us even more. The momentum kept growing and that’s how we were catching up,” Hernandez said.

There was a change of play and attitude in the second half of the game. The Spartans looked to win or at least tie the game as the half began. Within 15 minutes, Victor Calderon assisted Juan Reyes and they looked at a score of 2-4.

“We just played more simply. We were communicating more, we were making more runs,” said Jonathan Sandoval, a first-year student.

Nava scored once again. In the last five minutes McHenry scored off a penalty kick which subsequently left the Spartans with a 5-3 loss.

Chemistry and communication continue to be a difficulty the team faces, as they are things that take time to build and improve on and off the field.

“Sometimes I want someone to talk to me and be like, “Hey, I’m open” instead of everybody being quiet,” said Ulysses Flores, a first-year student. “There’s some people on the team that you don’t know, and you can’t really connect with, in just three weeks,” Flores added.

The end of the Spartans regular season is four games away. They continue to practice and hope upcoming games can reflect their work and improvement. In their continuous struggle, they have not been given up on, “I’ll never give up on the guys. As long as the effort’s there and they show us the coaching staff that they’ll do whatever it takes to reverse the situation,” Acevedo said.