The Vaqueros men’s soccer team gathered on the field at 7 p.m. Tuesday in front of a nearly empty La Playa stadium, only to lose against Santa Monica 0-1.

Head Coach John Sisterson said he wasn’t worried about the game as he told a story of the women’s soccer team getting caught in traffic coming back from a game against Moorpark, due to a plane crash on the freeway the same day.

All of the players warmed up for the game in their own way. Defender Mitchell Walker (8) asked an athletic trainer to take some knots out of his lower back while Andrew Angarano (3) prepared himself by asking an athletic trainer to wrap up his ankle beforehand.

The two assistant coaches prepared the team by coaching them beforehand with strategic ideas.

“We need headers, we need tackles, and we need 50-50 plays,” said Assistant Coach Christy Gates-Bowes.

Assistant Coach Dylan Murphy sat back and relaxed with a stats book in his lap, not too worried about the game.

“Hopefully we just get more final product,” Murphy said referring to the teams need to score goals.

The team gave the game it’s all from the beginning with Kevin Kwizera (9) putting hard pressure on any player near him until he either got the ball or the opponent gave it away. Right off the bat the other team put in just as much effort, showing they were evenly matched.

Only three minutes in, Celso Lagunas (11) pushed himself and was injured in a play, but got up a minute later, limping but ready to play again.

Barely five minutes in Ameyawu Muntari’s (2) ankle was nearly broken by a Santa Monica player and fell to the ground. Muntari got up a minute later and limped off the field for a break, but when his coaches asked if he was ok, he said, “I just want to get ready to go back in.”

Even off the field, Muntari still leads his team instructing Kwizera to stay higher up the field, hoping that will lead the team towards a goal.

Five minutes later Muntari took a spot back up front on the field, pushing through the pain.

After a few fouls, Murphy appeared to give into the many things being shouted from the sideline reminding the players to, “play the ball and not the player.”

This was quickly ignored by freshman Martin Melero (37) as he slid and tackled a player from Santa Monica from behind, setting off both teams and the referees whistle.

The game quickly got emotional as both teams started to raise voices, to the point where the referee needed to stop the game to tell the boys to calm down.

At half time the score was still 0-0 and the boys with their emotions still high came off the field dripping in sweat and began giving each other pointers. Sisterson also brought up points like “don’t over complicate it,” as the team sat and listened.

The teams played a dirty game filled with fouls and no goals until the last minute when Santa Monica managed to sneak a goal past the Vaqueros.

The goal was unexpected and, despite their efforts, the Vaqueros did not have enough time to recover and ended up walking off the field to a loss.

The Vaqueros will face their next opponent at 4 p.m. Oct 26, at Allan Hancock.