Even without the
services of record-breaking goal scorer
Monique
Cisneros (Mayfair HS), the
Cerritos College women's soccer team seemed to turn
up the heat in their CCCAA State Championship
semi-final game against Modesto College Friday night
at College of the Canyons. Sophomore
Corina
Villegas (Perris HS), who set
the goal-scoring record last year, continued her
post-season scoring streak, as she gave the Falcons
a 1-0 lead in the first half, en route to a 2-0 win.
The victory sends Cerritos (21-0-4), the top seeded
team from the South, to the state championship game,
where they will defend their title against Santa
Rosa College at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. Back on August
31, the Falcons defeated Santa Rosa, 2-0 in their
only meeting of the season.
At 10:00 a.m., the
Falcon men's team will face Mt. San Antonio College
for the state championship. Only twice has the men's
and women's teams from the same school won the state
title in the same year - Orange Coast (1988) and De
Anza (1994).
"I talked to
Corina during the week about being more aggressive
and being our go-to player in the state tournament,"
said head coach
Ruben
Gonzalez. "She knows what to do when
she has the ball and she was very aggressive today
and was the best player on the field."
The team's first
goal was set up on a nice play by sophomore
Betty
Cornejo (Bellflower HS), who
sent the ball toward the right side of the box after
controlling the ball near midfield. The ball found
the same space that Villegas and Pirates goalkeeper
Kymberly Gause at the same time, But Villegas was
able to chip the ball over Gause as she slid to
clear the ball, with her shot bouncing into the net
for her 18th goal of the season.
With Villegas
moving into Cardenas' spot on the field, Cornejo
stepped up to take a more offensive role and came
through with assists on both goals. It was Cornejo
who scored a goal in last year's semi-final game
that helped propel the Falcons to the championship
game.
"Betty is the kind
of play who really steps up in big games," added
Gonzalez. "She really picks her game up and she
showed it tonight. Betty was instrumental in both of
our goals."
In addition to the
play of both Villegas and Cornejo, sophomore
goalkeeper
Chantal
Cervero (Cerritos HS) came up
with several outstanding saves early in the game
that kept the team from falling behind early on. In
the 12th minute, Pirate midfielder Abby Barton sent
a header that looked to be going into the net, but
Cervero came up with a tremendous save. She matched
that by making two other saves in the first half
where she came out of her goal to cut off the angle
and finished with four saves in the first half.
Freshman
Tiffany
Hollis (Lakewood HS) played
the second half and was asked to make just two saves
- thanks to an aggressive defense that made their
way to nearly every loose ball.
"We came out a
little uncomfortable early on, but after those saves
by Chan, the team seemed to really pick up their
game," said Gonzalez. "We now have a team that's
experienced in this situation and we maintained our
control the entire game and it showed in the way we
played. We have a goalkeeper that will be starting
her second state championship game (Cervero) and she
is a much better player that in her freshman year."
The Falcons scored
their insurance goal in the 60th minute when Cornejo
took the ball from 40 yards out and sent a pass to
Orr, who wasted little time by drilling the ball
into the upper corner of the goal.
1st 2nd F
Modesto 0 0 0
Cerritos 1 1 2
Scoring:
Modesto: None
Cerritos: Corina
Villegas (27th minute; Betty Cornejo assist);
Alyesse Orr (60th minute; Betty Cornejo assist)l
Shots on Goal:
Modesto: 6
Cerritos: 25
Keeper Saves:
Modesto: Kymberly
Gause - 17
Cerritos: Chantal
Cervero (45 minute) - 4 saves; Tiffany Hollis - 2
saves
Records:
Modesto: 20-4-4
(seeded #2 in the North)
Cerritos: 21-0-4
(seeded #1 in the South)
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