The Bakersfield College soccer team wrapped up its season on Nov. 9 with a homecoming 2-0 shutout over Glendale College.
“It was good, we were really pleased,” BC coach Scott Dameron said on his team’s win over Glendale. “We just really wanted to dominate the ball, and not be in a hurry to go forward and just kind of take our time and let things develop.”
BC finished the season on a three-game winning streak, and also finished with an 11-9 overall record but didn’t make the playoffs.
“I think what I was pleased with was, despite when we lost, we still found a way to play pretty good soccer,” Dameron said.
BC defeated Glendale 2-0 on Oct. 16. Glendale has been shut out in 14 of its 17 losses on the season. The Renegades finished the season 8-0 when they hold their opponents scoreless and have outscored their opponents a total of 37-0 in that span.
“They’ve been fantastic,” Dameron said about his sophomores, who won’t be returning next season. “We’ve been trying to build a strong tradition in our program and they’ve been great at carrying it on, before the game they were talking to their teammates about what they need to do to help build it. We’re going to miss them a lot. They’ve been super important to us.”
On Nov. 6, the Renegades defeated L.A. Valley College 8-1 in their final road game of the season.
In the last meeting between the two teams, BC shut L.A. Valley out at home 6-0 and has outscored them 14-1 in two meetings this season.
“I think the biggest thing, we were talking about was trying to possess the ball better, and try to be in control of the pace of the game,” he said.
BC outscored L.A. Valley 5-0 in the first half and was able to make second half changes, for substitute players to get playing time.
Forward Mitzi Ibarra got a hat-trick for BC, as she contributed to five of BC’s eight goals; scoring three goals and two assists. Also, midfielder Danielle Vidal scored two goals.
On Nov. 2, there was trash talk, pushing, ejections and lots of tempers were heated, but the BC survived for a 4-3 win over Santa Monica College.
BC had control of the game in the first half with early goals by forward Reshana Watson and midfielders Danielle Vidal and Michele Loera in the first 20 minutes of the game.
BC got its final goal late in the first half by forward Mitzi Ibarra who was able to get the ball past SMC’s goal keeper Monique Boe, who was replaced in the second half by backup goal keeper Katherine Alvarenga after allowing four first half goals.
Dameron encouraged his team at halftime to not get complacent with how well things were going. He informed them that there was still a lot of soccer to be played, and they should approach the second half like it was a new game.
“I don’t think the first half could have gone any better for us because that is some of the best soccer we’ve played,” said Dameron.
SMC came out in the second half with a game plan of physicality against BC, who bought into the trash talk and physical play. Afterward, midfielder Michelle Carbajal was knocked to the ground by an SMC player and Carbajal didn’t agree with the play so she responded with a shove.
SMC’s coach Aaron Benditson didn’t agree with the officials’ non-call. As a result of continuing to use unacceptable language toward the officials for not giving BC a red card, he and a player were ejected from the game for constant use of profanity toward the officials.
“The one thing we should have done better was take some of the heat out of the game and slow it down and we let it turn into their kind of game,” said Dameron.