Cypress, Santa Ana Win State Titles

Cypress, which narrowly avoided an upset in the semifinals, had no such problem in the women’s soccer state title game against El Camino Sunday at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista.

Freshman Alie Nunez scored two goals as the Chargers beat El Camino, 3-0, to win their second consecutive community college state title.

“I’m proud of the way the team played,” Cypress Coach Ray Haas said. “It was a complete effort with everyone contributing.”

The Santa Ana men’s team also won its second consecutive state championship Sunday, defeating Canada College, 5-1.

The women’s game was a rematch of last year’s title match. Cypress scored its first goal in the the 36th minute when sophomore Jane Specht made what Nunez called “a perfect pass.” Nunez then scored from nine yards.

Nunez scored again in the 67th minute to give her 39 goals, a Cypress single-season record. The goal was set up by a pass from Rebekah Rogers.

Nunez, who was selected the tournament’s most valuable player, had scored an overtime goal against Ohlone as Cypress won, 4-2, in Saturday’s semifinal round.

Cypress’ final goal came from Lisa Hermen, who got a pass from Kristie McMahan just off the right post.

Moe Ybarra made nine saves for Cypress (27-0), which completed an undefeated season and ran its unbeaten streak to 53 games.

This was the sixth appearance in the state tournament for Cypress and Haas, who has a record of 180-13-17 in nine seasons at Cypress.

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Tournament MVP Fernando Rico had a goal and two assists to help Santa Ana to its victory over Canada.

Santa Ana won its 47th consecutive game and extended its unbeaten streak to 50 matches. It was the fourth state championship for the Dons.

“It was a little surprising to go undefeated,” Santa Ana Coach J.P. Frutos said. “But our mainstays in the defense and midfield were all sophomores. We knew we had the core to repeat.”

One key returner was sophomore Tomas Serna, who entered the game with a state-leading 41 goals but did not have a goal or assist Sunday.

“They keyed on Tomas today,” Frutos said. “But that’s the big mistake teams make against us. We have many players who can score and Tomas was instrumental in setting things up.”

Santa Ana scored 146 goals this year and displayed its superior depth Sunday.

After Jose Narranjo scored in the 47th minute to pull Canada (17-3-5) to within 2-1, Santa Ana (25-0) responded with Rico’s unassisted goal in the 54th minute. Then Rico assisted on Randy Zepeda’s goal, his 14th, in the 60th minute for a 4-1 lead.

The defense did the rest, with Carlos Rangel, Victor Licea and Oscar Retiz anchoring a unit that held Canada to six shots on Santa Ana goalkeeper Sasha Addeo, who had three saves.

Santa Ana took the early lead with Rangel scoring in the seventh minute off an assist from Rico and Luis Gutierrez scoring in the 20th minute off an assist from Jose Retiz.

Alex Licea had an unassisted goal in the 87th minute to cap the scoring.

“We’ll lose half the team for next year,” Frutos said. “But the bulk of it will be back.”