COD (13-4-5) wrapped up their incredible 2018 season in the CCCAA SoCal Regional Semifinals, traveling to Walnut to take on the #2 seed and falling to the Mt. San Antonio Mounties (18-3-3), 6-0.

In a season of firsts, including the Roadrunners first Conference title since 1999, Desert made their way past the #7 seed Rio Hondo in a 3-2 victory in the first round of the playoffs, then ventured on to face a behemoth in the #2 seeded Mounties. Mt. San Antonio was in search of their 12th consecutive SoCal Finals appearance.

The Mounties would score their first goal in the 7th minute, to take the early 1-0 lead, yet the Roadrunners would be undeterred, sticking to the hard-nosed offense that got them to this semifinal game, which was overwhelm the opponent's defense with shot attempts.

That plan had to be adjusted slightly when Mt. San Antonio would find the back of the net again in the 39th minute and again in the 43rd minute, giving the Mounties a 3-0 lead at the break. In the first half, Desert only had three shots on goal, leaving the Roadrunners to be more creative offensively and hunker down on defense if they wanted to climb back into the game.

For a Desert team that had not surrendered three goals in a first half since the third game of 2017, this was a tough lesson to learn, but determined the Roadrunners would not relent.

As the second half opened, Desert moved the ball up field quickly, and after taking a quick shot on net from about 30 yards out, could not keep possession on that end of the field, forcing the Roadrunners back on defense.

As the game went back-and-forth for the first 20 plus minutes of the second half, Desert tried to re-establish a tempo, but when Mt. San Antonio found the back of the net again in the 67th minute, building a 4-0 lead, it changed the game.

The Mounties would find the back of the net again in the 76th minute and again in the 81st minute.

The difference between where the Roadrunners have come from to where they are going is night and day and the difference between an established program and an up-and-coming program are stark, but the future is bright for Roadrunners Men's Soccer and 2019 should be fun.

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For additional information, please contact the COD Sports Information Office at 760.423.6641.

Information, Photo & Story provided by COD Sports Information.