TURLOCK – The five seniors on the Chico State men’s soccer team have accomplished a lot during their tenure. Sunday, they have a chance to add a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship to their resume.
Chris Akwaja cracked two goals and Micah Miranda mixed in a goal and an assist as the Wildcats whipped Cal State Dominguez Hills 3-0 in the CCAA Championship Tournament semifinals Friday night at Warrior Stadium on the campus of Cal State Stanislaus to advance to Sunday’s championship match.
The Wildcats will face off against Cal State L.A. Sunday at 2 p.m. for the title. The Golden Eagles defeated Cal State Stanislaus 2-1 in Friday night's second men's semifinal despite playing without a CCAA Newcomer of the Year Rosario Bras following his red card in the 37th minute.
The title match will be televised on Comcast Hometown Network for Comcast cable subscribers. The broadcast feed also will be streamed live through Stretch Internet at www.goccaa.org. The men’s match will follow the Chico State women’s match against Cal State Stanislaus for the women’s title.
“Our seniors wanted a shot at the CCAA Championship banner and now they’ve got it,” said Wildcats Head Coach Felipe Restrepo, referring to Akwaja, Ferid Celosmanovic, Ryan Struckmeyer, Nick Tedrow and Jacob Darr, each of whom played a key role in the win. “I’m so proud and excited for them.”
Chico State, ranked No. 15 in the nation and No. 2 in the West Region, improved to 13-3-3 with its seventh straight win. Five of those wins have come via shutout, giving the team 11 on the season, just one off the school record of 12 set by the 1978 team.
Two of those shutouts have now come against perennial power Cal State Dominguez Hills. Friday’s starting goalkeeper, James Stroud, was in the goal for both. The junior now has six shutouts on his ledger in just eight starts this season. The Wildcats also torched the Toros back on Sept. 15 in Carson. That final was 5-0.
For a while it looked as if Friday’s affair would be much tighter. But once Miranda broke the seal with his stupendous goal from 35 yards out in the 54th minute, the rout was on.
“I knew we had it in the bag right then,” said a smiling Miranda after the match. “The ball bounced back to me and I had a little opening. It was my chance and I had to take it. I just went crazy and had to give the fans a little show.”
His post-goal flip did the trick.
Miranda’s shot was set up by a great hustle play by defender Evan Johnston. Octavio Guzman collected a cleared corner kick and sent it back toward the middle of the box. A Dominguz Hills defender deflected it off his chest and charged forward with a counter attack undoubtedly on his mind. Instead, Johnston raced back and back tapped the ball off of the Toros player. It ricocheted to Miranda who ran on to it and one-timed a low-bouncing strike that curled inside of the far post for his second goal of the season.
He also had a hand in the second goal, just over 10 minutes later.
“We battled for each other and when we got our chances we put them away,” said Miranda.
Akwaja popped a pass out to Celosmanovic, who cracked a shot from 22 yards that deflected off a Cal State Dominguez Hills defender and bounced to Miranda. His back was to the goal, so he touched it to Akwaja, who was facing the goal just three feet away. Akwaja took advantage of the traffic in front of the net to sneak a low shot just inside the near post.
Guzman almost made it 3-0 with 11 minutes to play, but his shot from a tough angle clanged off the far post.
The post couldn’t save the Toros 10 minutes later when Celosmanovic beat a defender to the outside and then attacked with a dribble from the left side. When Toros goalkeeper Marcus Dickerson committed, Celosmanovic dropped a pass back to Akwaja who hit a beat Dickerson to his right side with a left-footed strike. It was Akwaja’s sixth goal of the season and the 20th of his career.
The Wildcats were shaky throughout the first half in which they were outshot 7-2, but they kept the Toros off the scoreboard long enough to regroup at intermission. A near-miraculous save by defender Mike Janjigian made sure of that.
Stroud came out aggressively to attempt to punch the ball away at the top of the box. But Dominguez Hills forward Henry Calistro beat him to it and touched it past him. The speedy Calistro needed only to outrun Janjigian to the ball to finish what seemed to be the inevitable. But Janjigian found an extra gear to get past Calistro and make a hook slide stop of the ball just as it was about to cross the line, shielding Calistro in the process.
“We were not as sharp as we wanted to be, but as the game moved along we were getting better,” said Restrepo. “By the middle of the second half we were really good.”
If the Wildcats can play at a similar level Sunday, they might just be feeling really good as well.
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