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Heading into their Southern California Regional Playoff
second round game, Cerritos College women’s head coach
Ruben
Gonzalez was prepared to be facing a very
physical Santa Barbara City College team. So instead of
their usual precision passing, the Falcons looked to get
the ball in deep and then create their offense from up
close. It worked to a tee, as 2nd-ranked
Cerritos (21-2-3) registered a 3-0 win over the 7th-ranked
Vaqueros (16-2-5) to advance to the third round. The
Falcons are now one win away from advancing to the state
championships for the first time in school history and
will host their next opponent on December 1. Last year,
Cerritos reached the third round, but were eliminated on
the road.
The Falcons will now host #3-seed San Diego Mesa College
(20-1-2) at 2:00 p.m. on December 1, with the winner
advancing to the state championships. The Olympians
defeated Cypress, 4-3 in penalty kicks in the second
round. Last season, Cerritos tied San Diego Mesa, 2-2,
but was awarded the win after the Olympians were forced
to forfeit for using an ineligible player.
“I thought that
it would be best for our team to play three forwards
back in the first half because we expected a physical
game,” said Gonzalez. “It got a little rougher after we
scored early, but I was very pleased when we got our
second goal right at the end of the first half.”
The Falcons took
a 1-0 lead just 13 minutes into the game when a clearing
pass deflected off freshman
Beatriz
Cornejo (Bellflower HS) and right in
front of freshman
Yasmin Torres
(El Rancho HS). The 4-foot-11 forward reacted
quickly and scored past SBCC goalkeeper Ashley Menin.
The goal that Gonzalez felt changed the game came in the
final seconds of the first half, as sophomore
Rebecca Juarez
(Jurupa Valley HS) fed a pass to Torres into the
top of the box. Torres then saw freshman
Monique
Cisneros (Mayfair HS) coming from the
other side and fed the ball toward the net. Both
Cisneros and Menin reached the ball at the same time and
collided, but Cisneros was able to kick the ball under
the goalkeeper and into the net.
Continuing to
play outstanding was Juarez, who received a long talk
from Gonzalez at halftime. After a shaky first half,
according to Gonzalez, he told her that if her offense
wasn’t there, then make sure to focus more on defense.
The talk apparently worked.
Not only did
Juarez help set up the second goal of the game, it was
her spectacular crossing pass along the goal line in the
final minute of the game that set up a header by
freshman
Corina Villegas (Perris HS) for the final
goal. Juarez was also instrumental in controlling the
ball at midfield and even dropped back on defense and
made a kick save in the 76th minute to keep
the score at 2-0.
The Falcon
defense was able to shut down the top two Vaquero
scorers, Lanakila McNaughton and Laura Spivack, who
combined to score 28 goals on the season. Santa Barbara
City had just four shots on goal on the day and a lot of
the credit goes to the midfielders who shut them down,
along with the steady play from defenders
Desiree
Cardenas (West Covina HS), Cornejo,
Gabriela
Aguilar (Santa Fe HS) and
Angela
Metzger (Bellflower HS). Additionally,
freshman forward
Vanessa
Monreal (Lynwood HS) showed her blazing
speed as she chased down numerous lead pass from Juarez.
Freshman goalkeeper
Chantal
Cervero (Cerritos HS) made three saves
and recorded her 10th shutout of the year.
“Once we got our
2-0 lead, I decided to switch to a 4-2-4 defense and I
didn’t think they would be able to score on that unless
it was a set piece,” added Gonzalez. “We did a good job
of adjusting to the style of play they brought to us. I
expect the rest of the playoffs to be the same.” |
