Men's soccer has rescheduled opener

By: Paul Muyskens

While the Delta College men's soccer team will have to wait a little longer to play their first home game they are just excited to be back out on the pitch.

"Everyone's excited and ready to compete," said head coach Josh Bradley who is in his eighth season with the Mustangs.

"We had some really nice moments on the field where we were doing what we wanted to do and touching the ball around," said Bradley about their season-opening 3-3 draw on Friday at Marin. "We try to pride ourselves on defense and keeping clean sheets so letting in that many goals wasn't ideal and we also left some goals on the field."

Coming off a season two years ago that saw them win two playoff games their goal remains the same as it is every year. "One game at a time right now," said Bradley. "We want to return to playoffs. We want to win the league. That's our first goal is to always win the league. These games leading up to it are just as important as the league as it gets you ready for playoffs."

"We are very very young," said Bradley as they have a very huge roster but a majority of the team being freshmen. "There's nothing wrong with being young but they just don't have the experience with the contact and physicality and the caliber of play that's in the Big 8. We are one of the toughest conferences in the state. We are young but there's a lot of growth and potential here. There are lots of guys that are going to step up that we aren't expecting yet but we know that they can"

While there are lots of new players they do return a few players and have guys they know that will be a big part of this year's team. "We have Jose Avalos and Enrique Cruz are playing up top and scoring goals," said Bradley. "Javier (Guerrero) and Ignacio (Flores) who are playing in the middle. Javi playing on the defensive side and Ignacio is playing box to box. They both played 90 minutes on Friday. Matt Salas is a returner from two years ago who scored in every playoff game."

They will have to wait a little longer than expected for their first home game as their game on August 31st against Evergreen Valley was moved to San Jose to avoid any issues with air quality in Stockton. Their home opener is now scheduled to be on September 10th at 4:00 pm against Foothill.