In his six seasons as the Cerritos College women's soccer coach, Ruben Gonzalez has experienced what it's like to win a South Coast Conference championship, state championship and national championship. But one championship had eluded Gonzalez in his four years as the girl's soccer coach at Bishop Amat High School. He had yet to know the experience of winning a CIF Division III Championship. But this season, Gonzalez and his team helped him reach that level when they upset Ayala High, 1-0 to win the championship.

 

    "When I got the job, I told the parents of the freshmen that my goal was to win a CIF Championship by my fourth year," said Gonzalez. "It was nice to be able to keep that promise. It was especially nice for the players who had been with me the entire time."

 

    The win over top-ranked Ayala was especially sweet, considering Bishop Amat has lost to the Bulldogs, 6-2 in a game earlier in the season. Winning the title also advances his team to the Southern California Regional Playoffs, but Gonzalez stated that it was the CIF Division III title that was his main goal. They entered the Regional Playoffs as the #6-seeded team and opened with a 2-0 win over #3-seeded Frontier High before a 2-0 loss to #2-seeded La Jolla High ended their season with a 30-2 record.

 

    But winning the Regional Playoff championship was not the main goal for Gonzalez and his team. "We wanted to win the CIF Championship," said Gonzalez. "That was what we focused our season on doing. It was a great year for us and now it's time to focus on getting the Falcons to the state championship." Gonzalez and his team played in the state championship game last season, but were defeated, 1-0 by Santa Rosa Junior College.