As Monterey Bay FC begins its fifth season of soccer, we take a look back at seasons past.

“A four-goal first half outburst provided enough of a cushion for Phoenix Rising FC on Saturday evening as they held off Monterey Bay F.C. 4-2.”

Dave Faries here, digging through Monterey Bay FC’s past as the team readies for its fifth campaign as a member of the USL Championship’s Western Conference. The line above is the first sentence of the Weekly’s coverage of the club’s first game, played at Phoenix on March 12, 2022.

“I think maybe in the first half there were a little jitters,” MBFC defender and team captain Hugh Roberts said after the match. “Then we calmed down.”

Seku Conneh gets credit for the first goal in club history. He scored on a header in the 77th minute. The first home goal came eight matches later—the finishing touches were still being put on Cardinale Stadium, so MBFC opened with seven consecutive road games. It was drilled home by Walmer Martinez, the first player to sign with the club and a CSU Monterey Bay alumni.

Roberts, Conneh and Martinez are now names from the past. The one player remaining from that inaugural season is midfielder Adrian Rebollar, who also played college soccer at CSUMB. In fact, Rebollar scored the club’s second-ever goal in that 2022 game at Phoenix.

Each season, MBFC has shown great promise. But each campaign has been scuttled by slumps, injuries or other issues. Still, the USL Western Conference provides some tight competition—especially for that elusive final playoff spot.

The top eight clubs in each conference move on to postseason play. In 2022, the Union finished 12-18-4 (that’s wins-losses-draws), a record that was only good enough for 12th out of 13 teams. Yet they were just 6 points—two wins, essentially—out of playoff contention. A year later, MBFC ended the year at 11-15-8, 11th out of 12 teams but a mere 5 points from a possible postseason berth.

Statistically, the Union have never been far from the cutoff line, finishing just 8 points behind in each of the past two years. 

Both 2024 and 2025 were marked by fast starts. In 2024, MBFC gained points in six of the first seven matches, but ended the year in 11th. Last season they flirted with the top spot through the first two months before two losing streaks dropped them to 11th once again.

But as midfielder Nick Ross tells me, “Nobody cares about the start of the season. You want to make the playoffs.”

Ross is a new face on the squad. Actually, the roster is made up of first-timers in the MBFC kit. Only five players from the 2025 side are back. That, however, is not viewed as a negative.

Building a club can take time, after all. MBFC launched a second team in order to develop young players. Now they have made moves that could prove significant, which you can read about in the current edition of the Weekly. And if rumors prove true, there is much more to come.

Monterey Bay FC kicks off the 2026 schedule tomorrow, March 7, at Cardinale Stadium, playing host to Oakland. We’ve brushed up on seasons past. Now it’s time for a new year of promise—and success.