In their CCCAA State Championship semifinal game against Fresno City College on Friday, the Cerritos College women's soccer team worked their mastery of the corner kick to the tune of a 3-1 win. The Facons (22-0-3) advanced to the championship game for the fourth year in a row by scoring all three of their goals on corner kicks against the Rams (19-2-4). Champions the last three years, Cerritos will face the winner of the Modesto-Rio Hondo game at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday at De Anza College.
In their first game of the season, Cerritos and Fresno City tied, 2-2. It would be the first meeting of the season between either Rio Hondo or Modesto. The Falcons are also looking to become just the second program in CCCAA history with four state championships. From 2000-03, Long Beach City College won four straight titles.
The Falcons got on the board in the 13th minute when freshman Carolina Jaramillo (Cetis 58, Tijuana HS) sent a corner kick to back post, where freshman Amber Whitmore (Los Alamitos HS) headed the ball home. It was a header by Whitmore in the 81st minute against Santiago Canyon College in the third round of the playoffs that turned out to be the game's lone goal, which advanced Cerritos to the state semifinals.
"We wanted to be aggressive early in the game," said head coach Ruben Gonzalez, who has led the Falcons to five state championships and three national championships. "Fresno's work ethic is phenomenal, so we knew we had to work hard the entire game. They get most of their scoring chances on the other team's mistakes, and we gave them one goal today with a mistake. We need to work on our midfield play and get ready for another tough game on Sunday."
Prior to becoming the head coach at Cerritos, Gonzalez spent three seasons serving as the head women's soccer coach at Rio Hondo College and led them to two Foothill Conference championships and a combined 44-11-1 overall record. A win by the Roadrunners over Modesto could pit Gonzalez against the school he left to come to the Falcons.
The Rams were able to tie the game at 1-1 in the 29th minute when sophomore Victoria Hernandez (Warren HS/UC Irvine) tried to clear away a shot by Denisse Aguirre. However, the spin on the ball sent it over goalkeeper Ruby Nichols' (Bishop Amat HS) head for a goal. That didn't seem to lessen the aggressiveness from the Falcons, who regained the lead less than five minutes later.
Taking one of their eight corner kicks on the day, freshman Jackie Garcia (Paramount HS) sent a corner kick into a cluster of players in front of the Fresno City goal. FreshmanJamie Peters (Bishop Amat HS) was able to track the ball and chipped it past goalkeeper Amanda Raymond into an open corner of the net for the eventual game-winning goal.
In an impressive corner kick, Jaramillo was able to bend the ball to the back post and it curved into the net, where the Freno City keeper was only able to tip the ball into the goal for an insurance goal in the 62nd minute. It was the team-leading 26th goal of the season for Jaramillo. On the day, Cerritos out-shot the Rams, 16-12, with only two of Fresno City's shots on goal.
"Just like every other team, we work on set pieces a lot," added Gonzalez. "This team has put in the work necessary to be in this position, but we're not done. We have to regroup and get ready for the most important game of the season. We've seen Rio Hondo play a couple of times, but haven't seen Modesto until today (the other semifinal game). The players know what's at stake."
