The win that the Cerritos women’s soccer team, seeded no.4 for playoffs, pulled out against Mt. San Jacinto, seeded no.13, in the 1st Round Southern California Regional Playoffs was not at first an easy journey, though the final score of 2-0 might say otherwise. The win brought the team to an even undefeated streak of 40 games.
The Mt. San Jacinto women’s team has taken a win 1-0 win from Long Beach City College, who was right behind Cerritos College’s team in league standing. A win like that leaves much to opportunity in a match that, for the entire first half, might have gone either way.
Chauncy Hayes, head coach of Mt. San Jacinto said, “We respect Cerritos. [It is] three-time defending champ for a reason.”
He added that his team knew what to expect when facing Cerritos.
“Unfortunately, we came up short,” Hayes said.
Patricia Roach, MSJC forward said, “We came here knowing how good they were. We prepared for them, we got our minds right.”
The women from Mt. San Jacinto’s defensive line held up a strong wall for a good part of the game time resulting in a draw of 0-0 at the half. But the wall crumbled as the match progressed through.
By the end of the match Cerritos had taken eight shots on goal and MSJC had taken only two, showing the strength of Cerritos offense despite being faced with a solid defense from MSJC.
Hayes said there were two key defense mistakes he saw that allowed Cerritos to score stating that Cerritos capitalized on it.
Yaqualin Garcia, Cerritos right defender said, “During the second half we kind of dominated […] that’s what we’re looking forward to in the next game, working hard.”
Though the match had a good outcome for Cerritos, there was something to be desired of the game play.
Garcia said, “Touching the ball a little more, because in the beginning we were playing kickball and it was tiring us out.”
Those are some of the things she believes could have changed the game sooner on.
The women’s team heads on to the next stage of its journey to a potential fourth state championship title.
Cerritos head coach, Ruben Gonzalez said, “The motto of the playoffs is to win and advance it doesn’t matter how you do it.”
Considering that the team had experience to be dangerous to Cerritos’ CCCAA State Championship campaign, Gonzalez said, “We continue to just strategize our game plan and continue to work hard.”
Jamie Peters, mid forward for Cerritos had an injury to her knee on the field during the second half. She cried out as she went down and the trainers feared the worst, saying as they rushed toward her that her knee gave out, and she was done.
She was carried off field and was worked on my trainers on the sideline of the field. She was then subbed in and out a few times as the game came to a close. “It was just a pull,” said Peters “The initial pain was a little bad […] it was nothing to serious.”
Peters and the whole team are set to train and go through therapy with the physical trainers to prepare for the next round of playoffs where they face #5 seed San Bernardino Valley College.
