The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.

A season that once looked so promising is now in a state of free fall after the College of San Mateo football team lost its third straight game Saturday.

The Bulldogs were 5-0 entering NorCal Conference play last month, outscoring their five opponents 258-61. But since a 29-16 conference-opening victory over Santa Rosa on Oct. 16, CSM has been beaten by Foothill, City College of San Francisco and Butte.

What makes the streak such a football-sized pill to swallow is that aside from a 33-0 letdown at CCSF, the other two defeats came by a total of four points, including a 38-37 loss Saturday to visiting Butte on a field goal with three seconds remaining

According to the players, nothing is different now from when the Bulldogs were rolling to six straight victories to start the season. There might be a few more injuries here and there — most notably, running back Seta Pohahau has been out, second-string quarterback Miles Freeman has been lost for the year with a broken collarbone and starting signal-caller Julian Bernard remains limited with a throwing-shoulder injury — but the approach remains the same.

If anything, players say, it’s only natural for adversity to be encountered in the always rugged NorCal Conference.

“I’m pretty sure it’s a tough conference, but that’s the way we like it though,” said sophomore slot back Therman McGowan, who leads the team with 121 all-purpose yards per game. “We don’t want it to be easy. We want to have the toughest road. We have one of the hardest schedules out of anybody this whole season. So, we’re just pushing. Every single day it’s a grind. We’re trying to get better every day, with every practice, with every rep.”

It’s not impossible to argue that had a few plays gone differently, the Bulldogs would be a one-loss team.

Alas, the Bulldogs are instead 1-3 in the NorCal, 6-3 overall, and head to Oakland on Friday for a 7 p.m. game at Laney College. The losing streak has put the Bulldogs a game behind the 5-4 Eagles in conference play.

One constant on offense this season has been receiver Rahsaan Vaughn, who is coming off a monster game against Butte and leads the Bulldogs in receiving with 40 catches for 678 yards and nine touchdowns. Vaughn admitted Tuesday that while the upcoming game doesn’t carry with it the same goals CSM had in mind for its season, the contest will still provide a challenge.

Laney has had equally disappointing games to what CSM has encountered.

“(The Eagles) play hard,” Vaughn said. “They don’t give up. They’ve had close games with teams like City and Foothill, so we know we’re in for a challenge like every week in our conference. But we’re going to get at it.”