The blue and gold prepare to host the Howard Bison on Thursday, March 9 for a nonconference game. These foes have only competed once in the program’s history. The last matchup took place in 2002 in Bison territory in Washington, D.C., and the Bears came out victorious, defeating Howard 16-10. 

The odds are in Cal’s favor as Howard has yet to win a single game this season. Howard currently stands at 0-4 and has not gotten even marginally close to beating any of its opponents. The closest the Bison have gotten to winning a game was during their first game of the season against Delaware State with a score of 4-16. 

As the Bears reflect on their past game against Cornell, they hope to implement what they’ve learned so far in future games.

“Something people keep talking about is that there were nine different goal scorers. That’s an exciting takeaway from the game and something we can definitely build on moving forward,” said senior midfielder Maya Lawliss.

Although the Bears have only had one win thus far, it is definitely important to point out that most games have been extremely close. During its first loss this season, Cal was 4 points away from winning, only 3 points short of beating San Diego State and 5 from collecting a win against Cornell. With such close deficits, Cal could have easily turned the game around had minor events gone differently. 

“Something that we learned is the importance of starting off strong. We kind of fell behind a bit early but we obviously came together in the end to have it be such a tight game. But what we learned is that we need that mentality to start off strong in the very beginning so we can have (a) strong 60 minutes,” said sophomore midfielder Mya Wang.

Wang emphasized a pattern that has been negatively impacting the Bears thus far that can be seen in their games against Central Michigan, San Diego State and Cornell. In all three games, the opposing team led during the first quarter and Cal scored the majority of its goals during the fourth quarter of all three games. During its match against Central Michigan, the Chippewas scored four goals in the first quarter while Cal scored three, and in the fourth quarter the Bears scored five while Central Michigan scored three. Similarly, San Diego State outscored Cal 4-2 in the first quarter and Cal outscored San Diego State 3-1 in the fourth quarter. The pattern follows its most recent game where Cornell led 5-2 in the first quarter and Cal dominated in the fourth quarter 3-1. 

The Bears must work together to start off as strong as they tend to finish their games in order to turn the tables around and start seeing the outcomes they seek. If the blue and gold are able to implement all that they have learned from past games, then a second win is well within their reach.