FRC Soccer Players shine at Showcase

For the first time in Feather River College soccer history 5 players from the Golden Eagles men’s and women’s teams participated in the much celebrated sophomore showcase in Santa Clarita, CA. Coach Don Williams took Garrett Fausett, Alex Sanchez, Juan Garcia, Salena LeBlue, and Sage Clark on a long road trip so that they could show their soccer skills to more than 50 college coaches. The players were selected to attend based on their status as all conference selections.
Each player was guaranteed 45 minutes of playing time in the showcase and Coach Williams said that the FRC participants played well. “I am so proud of our men and women, they really showed well, Sage scored one of the few goals of the day, Salena played like a champ at center back while Garrett, Alex and Juan again showed why a number of schools have been interested in them coming to play for them.”
Coach Williams said that some of the schools that have already expressed interest in FRC players are San Francisco State, Chico State, Cal State Bakersfield, Humboldt State, Tusculum College in Tennessee, Lynn University in Florida, McPherson University in Kansas as well as Saint Mary’s in Kansas. “To have this many colleges show interest in our players is great for FRC and for our soccer program, I know we are teaching our student-athletes to play and to study the right way when we see this kind of interest” said Williams.

Pictured in the photograh from left to right:
Coach Don Williams
Juan Garcia
Garrett Fausett
Alex Sanchez
Sage Clark
Salena LeBlue

Golden Eagle Men Continue to Soar

10/26/10 – Quincy, CA – The Feather River College Golden Eagles took revenge on Shasta College Knights Tuesday, when they beat one of only two teams to defeat them in conference play, 4-2. The FRC men have scored 4 goals in each of their last two matches and are preparing to finish conference play November 5th at home against Butte College.
Goal number one came in the 9th minute for the Golden Eagles when sophomore sensation Juan Garcia drove down the right wing and cut the ball back to his left foot. Garcia drove a cross to the far post where Cesar Vasquez rushed on to the ball and headed it home for his second goal of the season. Just one minute later Garcia would provide another assist. This time Garcia found Ismael Reyes who hammered home a shot from 15 yards out to make it 2-0 with only 10 minutes off the clock. At minute 17 it was Vasquez’s turn to play provider when he found Reyes on a beautiful crisp pass to his feet and Reyes did not hesitate to slot the ball home from 22 yards out into the upper right hand corner of the goal. Finally just 12 minutes before the half Garcia was able to strip the ball from a Knights defender and he hit a laser of a shot from almost 30 yards out that dipped and swerved its way into the upper corner of the Knights goal.
The second half of the match saw FRC take its foot off of the gas and as a result Shasta was able to get two consolation goals.
Winning conference and making the state playoffs for the Golden Eagles was a pre-season goal and now they are going to need a little help from College of the Redwoods to make that happen. Tuesday November 2nd Lassen who leads the conference by two points will visit Eureka and if Redwoods can manage a win or a draw and FRC can beat Butte FRC will be crowned conference champions for the second year in a row. “We dug ourselves a bit of a hole on the road against Shasta and Butte earlier in the season by losing to both, now we need a little help from Redwoods against Lassen” Said Coach Don Williams. Williams continued “it will be said if we do not win conference because we swept Lassen in conference play and we know we are the best team in the conference.”

Golden Eagle Women Lose to Shasta

10/26/10 – Quincy, CA – Shasta College Knights visited Quincy and walked away with a 3-2 conference victory. The opening half of the women’s soccer match between Feather River and Shasta looked promising for the Lady Eagles Tuesday as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Sage Clark opened the scoring with a breakaway goal just 8 minutes into the match. 22 minutes later Quincy local Blanca Ruiz was assisted by Madeline Ramos and picked up her 3rd goal of the season.

With a 2-0 halftime lead the Lady Eagles felt comfortable but in sports no lead is safe and 2-0 may be the most dangerous lead in soccer, momentum can shift quickly and on Tuesday afternoon it did. 10 minutes into the second half Shasta was awarded a corner kick and was able to convert a header into a goal. Shasta would tie the match 23 minutes later and then would find the eventual match winner in the final 10 minutes when Eagles keeper and Portola native Kayla Healey came for a ball but was chipped for the match winner.“Kayla has come a long way as a keeper and she had an outstanding day making 10 saves for us, we are so proud of her efforts, as we are of all of our women, they never gave up or stopped fighting” said Coach Don Williams.

A Heartfelt Apology

10/11/10 – Quincy, CA – How do you say I am sorry and reduce a bunch of tough, macho young men to Jello at the same time? Give a free soccer clinic to a group of 8 and 9 year olds. Kristy Brown of Greenville brought her Under 10, third and fourth grade Dominators soccer team out to watch the Feather River College men play against Lassen College on Monday afternoon. The problem was that the word did not get out to them that Lassen had canceled the match and was not showing up.

Coach Don Williams and Brown put their heads together and came up with an impromptu solution to the problem so that there would not be a team of disappointed kids on the afternoon. The men’s soccer team split themselves up and gave the young boys and girls from Greenville a thrill by teaching them a few of their patented skill moves and then playing a pickup game of soccer with them. Sophomore Alex Reyes, Reno, NV, came away with a sense of having done something nice for someone else saying “I really love these kids, they are great.”

“I am so proud of my men” said Coach Williams. “They did not have to stay as long as they did, but they were just having so much fun with these boys and girls that they did not want to stop.”

FRC Lady Eagles Soaring and Scoring

10/05/10 – Redding, CA – The Feather River College women’s soccer team traveled to Redding to take on the Shasta College Lady Knights and walked away with a hard fought 2-2 draw and a well-earned point on the road.
Shasta opened the scoring with a well-placed chip shot over FRC keeper Kirsten Coultas. Coultas the FRC co-captain, is still recovering from a hip injury but came up with 4 saves on the day and cut out another 5 through balls by playing high up in her box. “What I love about having Kirsten in goal is that she plays so confidently high in her box which I know from experience cuts out a lot of goal scoring opportunities that opponents might otherwise have” said Coach Don Williams.
The FRC women went into half time down 1-0 but came out on fire in the second half. The trademark of the FRC team is that they target passes to the feet of their teammates rather than resort to the typical kick and run style of many untrained opponents. “When we pass hard to our targets most teams cannot stop us, discipline is the key and when we do this the game is beautiful to watch” said Williams. The target passing paid off in the 60th minute when the Lady Eagles moved the ball down the field and the ex-Quincy High School combination of Blanca Ruiz to Gaby Naranjo paid off with a match tying goal and her third of the season. Ruiz played the ball across the box to Naranjo who chipped the Knights keeper.
Shasta responded 15 minutes later with a breakaway goal but Feather River was not dismayed. 10 minutes from the final whistle freshman Madeline Ramos struck yet again with her fourth goal of the season by hitting her patented left footed shot over the head of the helpless Knights keeper. Ramos, who led all players with 9 shots on the day, was not done and hit a right footed screamer toward goal the barely skimmed over the crossbar. “I cannot tell you how elated I am with our women, it has been a difficult injury riddled season but they pull together and will not quit” Williams proudly stated.

FRC Men Suffer loss at Shasta

10/05/10 – Redding, CA – For only the third time this season the Feather River College men’s soccer team felt what it was like to lose a match losing 2-1 to the Shasta College Knights. The match was very atypical of the FRC men’s style of play and Coach Don Williams felt that it was due to overconfidence and lack of focus in preparation for the match. Williams was quoted saying “I try to live by and teach the 5 P’s. Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance because the way you train is the way you play. Our men went into the match believing that they did not need to work hard prior to the match, did not warm-up with intensity and paid the price of overconfidence.”
Shasta struck first in the second minute with a well-placed chip over the head of FRC keeper Anthony Wakeford and while FRC would outshoot yet another opponent 6-5 in the first half they could not find the back of the net. The second half the Golden Eagles would start to pull things together and scored a goal off of a long throw in to the head of Cesar Vasquez who flicked it on to Alex Reyes. Reyes headed a rocket ball into the back of the net to tie the score 1-1 in the 60th minute.
The Knights were not finished however and struck the match winner in the 75th minute when FRC second half keeper Jose Felipe came out for a ball only to see a Knight player place it over his head and while Felipe got his hand to the ball the attempt was futile and the ball settled into the FRC goal.
“I hope our men have learned a valuable lesson today, if so it is great to get this out of the way before playoff time rolls around. It is great to be confident but overconfidence and poor preparation can lead to disaster” stated Williams.

Feather River Women Struggle to Get Groove Back

10/01/10 – Eureka, CA – The Feather River College women’s soccer team lost 3-0 to College of the Redwoods and is still struggling to find their early season form after the loss of key player Chelsea Kocherhans who went down with a season ending ACL tear. “I am still waiting for someone to step up and fill her shoes, we have plenty of capable players to do that, but no one has claimed the consistent leadership role yet on the pitch” said Coach Don Williams.
Goal number one came for Redwoods when the ball took a bad bounce off of the rough football field pitch and bounced up to strike the arm of a defender for the Eagles. The official judged that a penalty kick should be awarded and the Lady Eagles found themselves down 1-0 29 minutes into the match. The scoreline would remain 1-0 through the half and the Lady Eagles made a few halftime adjustments that resulted in more second half shots but they could not find the back of the net.
Redwoods would find the Eagles Freshman keeper and Portola native Kayla Healy up to the task of making 5 saves on the day including a penalty kick save in the 40th minute but were able to slot 2 more goals on the day. “We are proud of the way Kayla has stepped in for our injured starter Kirsten Coultas. We sorely miss Kirsten’s leadership on the field but Kayla has done a great job in the net for us” said Williams.
The Lady Eagles travel to Shasta on Tuesday 10/5 to take on the Knights.