Rams Graze Past Merritt in Statement Win

By Coop Maldanado

City College of San Francisco’s soccer team dominated Merritt College’s Panthers 4-0 at home on Tuesday afternoon, September 1. After last year’s tailspin season, the Rams are showing that they’re willing to give their all in every single game. 

Last week, August 27, CCSF opened their 2026 season with a tightly contested draw 1-1 at Lake Tahoe Community College. 

This is their first win of the season, giving them a record of 1-0-1. They won’t play their first conference game until September 25.

Pre-game practice displayed the tenacity and fierceness the Rams are bringing. 

Head coach Adam Lucarelli said “We’ve got a really good team this year, not many returning players but we have a lot of new promising players.”

The Rams’ offense came out of the gate swinging with Cristian Garcia driving down the field and scoring an unassisted goal at minute 8:30 giving them a 1-0 lead, making for an exciting opening to the game.

Andrew Buenrostro kept the energy going, not even three minutes later scoring after a pass from Brendon Cardenas at the 11th minute, making the score 2-0. 

The Rams rarely let Merritt get to their side of the field, and Buenrostro kept his cleat on the Panthers’ necks by receiving assists from Diego Jara-Rodríguez and Cristhian Umanzor and heading the ball to score back-to-back at the 25:30 minute mark, putting the Rams up 3-0.

Jose Contreras who played goalkeeper for the first 30 minutes of the match was subbed off for Jesper Skoglund, who made the Rams’ lone save of the game.

Setting the scoreline, Garcia came back to book-end the scoring duo between him and Buenrostro around minute 31 with his second unassisted goal of the game, capping the score off for City College at 4-0 before halftime.

Merritt was given a chance to score with a penalty kick but failed five minutes before the referees called for halftime. 

During halftime, the teams went to their sidelines planning their approach for the second half. Both Coach Lucarelli and Assistant Coach Shani Simpson talked to their players about focusing on their composure, accountability and overall tactical adjustments to keep the energy they had in the first half going while refining their play style.

“They’re playing good but with the huge lead they have we don’t want them to get too comfortable and get sloppy, they need to keep playing like the score is 0-0,” Coach Simpson said. 

With their coach’s notes, the Rams came back with the same commanding presence.

Neither team were able to score in the second half however, leaving the scoreboard at 4-0 for the rest of the remaining 45 minutes. 

Though there were attempts at scoring on both sides of the field, at minute 64, the Rams gave a big fight to Merritt’s goalie and defenders which resulted in a foul on the Panthers. 

A free kick attempt was made by the Rams, Abdullah Khurram faking a kick and Douglas Jeronimo Sontay coming in right after and passing it to Alejandro Avalos and Mustafa Ahmadi, 18, both who tried to score by slide-kicking. The ball went in but, upon further review the shot was stripped after it was ruled off-sides.

Goalkeeper Skoglund was swapped with Marley Babb for the last 30 minutes of the match and did not allow a goal from the Panthers. 

After the game, Garcia and Buenrostro reflected on the match and how their team played, “I thought we really grew as a team, especially after Tahoe we knew we had what it takes to be a great team and we persevered.”

“We just need to not get comfortable in the second half and play aggressively all the way through,” Buenrostro said.