Fernando Abarca

People at the stands during the 2 nd half of the USL Championship game Oakland vs. Monterey Bay FC on Saturday, September 25, 2023. Pioneer Stadium hosts Roots home games.

It is not a surprise that the sport that rules our school is not football. The biggest game in our school and local community is now Soccer.

On Saturday, September 23 rd , 2023, The Pioneer Stadium, located in our school, had a packed house of people from our community as the Oakland Roots hosted their Hispanic heritage game, as the club called it, “Know your roots.” The slogan was to show the Latino community to appreciate and value their personal history and where they come from.

Many people from different areas of the East Bay area made themselves a date to come and watch the games as Monterey scored the first goal in the 13 th minute of the game. The Roots came to equalize almost leading up to the Stoppage time of the 1 st half as Oakland scored in the 44th minute of the game.

Heading to half time, people enjoyed our facilities, the lovely view of the stadium of an early fall sunset. Many people appreciated that our stadium has a nice view of the bay. The Chants, the weather, the supporters, and the game itself contributed to what it was pretended to be: a great soccer atmosphere in our stadium.

The second half began, and the Roots seemed to dominate the game as they dominated both on the defensive and tactical sides. In the 64th minute of the match, Monterey scored to give them the lead; although they were dominating, Oakland never stopped supporting, and the time getting closer to stoppage time, the Roots found a way to score in the 90th minute of the game.

Although the team wanted a Win, we can all agree that this tasted like a victory. The Roots packed our stadium facilities, and the club thanks our department for the flexibility of holding their games in our stadium.

The club encourages our students to attend one of their remaining games (two games at home last on Oct 14). For those unaware, Roots also have their home games for next season in our stadium.

Our school has the privilege of having such big diversity; because of that, East Bay always encourages our students to value their roots and support their local clubs.