Nathan Mollat / Daily Journal Cañada’s Jesus Castaneda, right, takes a shot during the Colts’ 5-2 win over Ohlone. Castaneda was one of four players to score for the Colts in their 2008 season opener.

To say the Cañada men had its way with Ohlone on Friday would be a slight understatement. In their season opener, the host Colts unleashed a whopping 40 shots — yes, 40 — including 23 on goal in a 6-2 victory. Emilio Esparza scored two goals, and Angel Pumacayo, Jesus Castaneda, Cristian Argueta and Jesus Cordero scored one goal apiece. Cañada coach Ruedi Graf was pleased for the most part but kept things in perspective.

“It’s a lot easier to play soccer when you have the ball and not running after it,” he said. “It’s not uncommon to play down a level sometimes when you play a weaker team.”

Amazingly, all of the scoring was done in the second half. Cañada was shut out in the first 45 minutes despite finishing with 16 shots, eight of which were on goal. Cañada pulled the soccer equivalent of blowing a number of layups, as time and again a Colt player was in front of the Ohlone goal only to misfire. But it didn’t take long for Cañada to finally finish one of its chances coming out of the halftime break.

Thirty seconds into the second half, Pumacayo tapped in a easy one-timer off a feed from Jared Tondino. It took a while, but the Colts finally started to lay the hammer down midway through the second half. In a sizzling five-minute stretch starting in the 65th minute, Cañada scored three times on four shots, capped by a beautiful play from Esparza, who was stationed 30 yards away from the goal and had his back turned to the net.

In one swift motion, Esparza gathered a pass, spun 180 degrees and fired off a left-footed shot to the upper opposite corner for a commanding 4-0 lead. It was one of the many highlight-reel plays from the Colts, who had plenty of real estate to work with each time one of their players touched the ball. Superior in every phase of the game, the Cañada players literally ran circles around the overwhelmed Renegades.

It was an accomplishment for Ohlone when it got the ball past midfield, as the Colts were able to dominate the possession with superior ball-control skills, quickness and agility. Since Ohlone will probably finish in the bottom of the Coast Conference standings and Cañada probably near the top, the final score was hardly a surprise.

Graf isn’t worried about finding the net, but knows his team must play a more disciplined style of defense if it wants to reach its vast potential. Ohlone caught Cañada napping on its first goal, which came on a counter after the majority of the Colt players were crashing the Ohlone goal. It’s the type of tally that can’t happen when Cañada plays a team similar to it in talent. A team like West Valley — usually big, physical and tough — will give the Colts all sorts of problems if they don’t tighten up defensively.

“Individually we have a lot of talented players who can create, but we have to work as a team and be more organized and consistent on defense,” Graf said. “(The first Ohlone goal) was disappointing soccer. We should’ve had a surplus of players of guys in the back instead of them going forward (in that situation). I hate to use the word but sometimes a lot of them play like street players, and what we want is to fit them into a system.”

The Colts are particularly strong at the halfback positions. Esparza, Joseph Torres, Jacob Rodrigues and William Lopez combine power, vision and aggressiveness. Rodrigues and Esparza stay calm on the ball, a key ingredient for a possession team. Right halfback Javier Mendoza has a nice combination of one-on-one skills and the ability to set up teammates with accurate crosses.

Up top Pumacayo has a knack for the ball near the goal. As always, the Colts have visions of making a deep run in the playoffs. While the talent is there seemingly every year, the key is whether they can mesh as one cohesive unit, stay mentally tough and be strong enough defensively against the top-tier teams in Northern California.

“Pound for pound we’re not as big as some other teams,” Graf said. “We counter that with skill and being able to hold and move the ball. But when we play a team like West Valley we’re going to have to play a lot better than we did today.”

Fortunately for the Colts, they have time to become the team Graf believes they can be.

Cañada women a work in progress

After watching the men’s team throttle Ohlone, the Lady Colts opened the 2008 season with the second game of a doubleheader against visiting Delta College of Stockton.

If nothing else, the Lady Colts found out they have a long way to go to be a competitive, collegiate soccer team as Delta laid the wood to the Colts, beating them 5-0.

“Our girls aren’t ready right now,” said Cañada coach Kurt Devlin. “Our girls don’t know what it means to be a college athlete.”

Cañada was out-shot 16-5 with Delta putting 12 shots on goal as Delta was bigger, faster, stronger, more physical and just an overall better team. Goalkeeper Tiffany Irizarry kept the Colts in the match in the first half, making six saves but she could not stop the onslaught in the second half as Delta scored four times on well-placed shots.

Down 1-0 late in the first half, it appeared the Colts scored the equalizer when Kayla Revel one-timed a cross on a free kick into the net. But the referee blew his whistle, indicating the free kick was taken from the wrong spot — it was, in fact, 15 yards closer to the goal.

After that, Cañada had two legitimate scoring chances, both in the second half. First Revel sent a perfect through ball to Renee Firth, who could not catch up to it. Later, Revel blasted a shot from about 20 yards that was saved.

The Colts do have some talent in Revel and Emma Quiroz among them but both those players let their emotions get the better of them. Quiroz was subbed out after throwing an elbow and Revel was ejected for an offense Devlin was not sure of.

Devlin pointed to the play of Sara Saperstein, Sara Paredes and Irizarry as positive points but all in all it would be best for Devlin and the Colts to put this performance out of their minds as soon as possible.

“We have so many inexperienced players and finding the right mix is going to be difficult,” Devlin said.