The end of a tough season leaves the Elgin Community College’s men’s soccer team with a record of 0-13-1 in their regular season.

On Oct. 5, the ECC Men’s team played against Illinois Valley Community College for their last home game of the season. The team has experienced a shortage of players as their end neared, and for this game, they played with only one substitute. Despite this, the team led the first half with a score of 3-1.

“The first half we completely dominated,” said Raul Vasquez, a first-year student.

In the second half, another two goals were scored by Illinois Valley, which allowed them to tie the game with a score of 3-3. The game went into two overtimes, forcing most of the Spartans to play 110 minutes each.

“It was a great game. I think that was one of our best games all year,” said first-year Head Assistant Coach, Matt Brant.

Despite the Spartans’ effort, it was not enough to grant them a victory.

“It’s getting to a point where a lot of us are getting fatigued and tired.” The team acknowledges this but it’s not over just yet, “A lot of our guys are just tired of losing, but at the same time we’re working hard to do something about that, to fix it,” said Vasquez.

The men’s team was originally well-populated beginning with 26 players. However, there is now only 13 men left competing. The low numbers has been one more obstacle they’ve had to face this season.

Both coaches are new to the program and a big portion of their team are first-year students. Team chemistry has inevitably been hard attaining.

“We didn’t have any time at all to prepare as a team which I think was our biggest hurdle to get over,” said Head Coach Salvador Acevedo.

Chemistry is now present but hard to see at times when the player’s frustrations get the best of them, ” I say it’s overall good but once we’re in a game and we get frustrated we tend to lose each other and we play different,” said Inocente Simental, a first-year student.

The team has also improved in many other aspects that contribute to the game. They surpassed the number of goals scored by last year’s team very early in the season, and several different players have contributed. “This year we’ve had a variety of players scoring, which is good,” said Acevedo.

As well as acknowledgment and responsibility within their faults, “Now team accountability is a really huge thing that our coach has implemented,” said Vasquez.

With the experience they’ve received this year, the coaches have decided to make their program a year-long commitment to better prepare themselves and bond earlier with their team.

The soccer team will now prepare for playoffs. They will face Triton College the number one team in their conference on Monday, Oct. 16.

“I’m excited for playoffs. We’re just trying to play good because any team can do better at any time,” said Rusbin Guardado, a first-year student.