Story and Photo by Marcus Tolero
This Saturday the City College of San Francisco Men’s Soccer team (11-6-2, No. 10 seed)) opens their playoff run on the road against Lassen City College (13-4-3, No. 7 seed).
The Rams are coming off a week that saw them capture their fourth Coast-North Conference title in the last six years. Although the championship is a reaffirmation of the program’s long-standing success within the conference, Head Men’s Soccer Coach Adam Lucarelli understands that regular-season success can only take his team so far in the playoffs.
“The team has to realize that we’re not going on vacation. We have a job to do,” Lucarelli said. “It will be a tough game because we are travelling a long ways and the weather could be really cold, windy, or snowy. But I think our guys are focused and they want to do well and keep the season going.
“There’s a really strong bond with this team. They don’t want to stop practicing and playing with one another.”
The Rams will look to their outstanding scoring trio of Gian Marco Zancanaro, Tobi Oladapo, and Bobakr Hussain to lead the offensive attack. All three finished first, second, and third on the team in goals and points, respectively. Zancanaro paced the team with 12 goals and 28 points, followed by Oladapo’s 11 goals and 24 points, and Hussain’s nine goals and 21 points. CCSF will need all three to produce against a Lassen team that allowed only 25 goals during the season.
On the defensive side, the Rams will look to defenders Jamal Bernardez, Chris Finlez, Jesper Hauch and goalkeeper Thomas Soto to contain a Lassen offense that scored 70 goals, third best in the state. The Rams come into this matchup with one of the better defensive units in California. CCSF allowed only 24 goals on the year, and Soto also pitched five shutouts for the Rams.
“They have a few dangerous players offensively, and we will keep an eye on them. But we don’t want to detract or get away too much from our game plan, which has always been to press hard, defend hard, and try to win the ball on their half of the field to create goal-scoring opportunities,” Lucarelli said.
Saturday’s game starts at 2 p.m.