December 7 - 8, 2002
Oliveira Soccer Complex
Lemoore, CA
Hosted by West Hills College

December 8, 2002

Box Score

Fresno City 2—0—2

Santa Rosa 0—3—3

Scoring: Fresno-Tim McKinney (Onesta Francis) at 2 minutes; Fresno-McKinney (Joe Romero) at 39 minutes; Santa Rosa-Daniel Howard (Gerard Aterado) at 62 minutes; David Briceno (G. Aterado) at 67 minutes; Sean Hulme (Unassisted) at 70 minutes.

Shots on Goal: Fresno 17, Santa Rosa 15

Saves: Fresno—Anthony Cardiel 4 saves; Santa Rosa—Peter Chiarpotti 5 saves

Attendance: 700

Final records: Fresno 22-3-3; Santa Rosa 22-1-2

Co-MVPs—Santa Rosa: Gerard Aterado (sweeper); Daniel Howard (forward)

(LEMOORE)—Santa Rosa Junior College roared back from a 2-0 halftime deficit and won its second consecutive state title, downing Fresno City, 3-2, in the finals of the COA California Community College men’s soccer championships Sunday.

Santa Rosa (22-1-2) has only lost one match in the last two seasons in winning back-to-back championships under Head Coach Marty Kinahan.

Trailing 2-0, Santa Rosa scored three goals in a span of 8 minutes in the second half. The Bear cubs hit the scoreboard when state tournament Co-MVPs Gerard Aterado and Daniel Howard teamed up on a set play. At the game’s 62nd minute, Aterado sent a free kick to Howard, who hit a perfect back header from 15 yards out for the goal.

Santa Rosa tied it five minutes later when Aterado again launched a free kick that David Briceno corralled, who then beat Fresno goalie Anthony Cardiel from 10 yards away. SRJC completed the comeback at the 70-minute mark when Sean Hulme collected a Fresno deflection and fired in a 5-yard shot for the third and decisive goal.

Fresno (22-3-3) lost despite two first-half goals by Tim McKinney. Onesta Francis and Joe Romero assisted on the short yardage goals by McKinney.

“We played with a lot of heart,” Aterado said. “We played in that type of situation before, which helped us. I was scared though being down 2-0.”

Kinahan noticed that Fresno didn’t press on offense in the second half of the Rams’ 3-2 semifinal win over Mt. San Antonio when Fresno led 3-0 at halftime. He said Fresno played a similar strategy in the second half of the championship match.

“We finally stepped up our intensity and challenged Fresno more in the second half,” Kinahan said. “I told our team we needed to score in the first 15 minutes of the second half. Once we got that first goal, it sparked us the rest of the way.

Fresno was the first team this season to score two goals in a match against Santa Rosa, which allowed only nine regular season goals going into the tournament.

Besides tallying two assists, Aterado, a freshman sweeper, made several strong defensive plays to keep Fresno from forcing an overtime. SRJC goalie Peter Chiarpotti made four saves in the last 15 minutes to secure the victory.

Chiarpotti’s best defensive play was a leaping tip save over the net on a header from Fresno’s Rob Hodgkins with five minutes left.

Santa Rosa reached the finals after coming back from a 1-0 halftime deficit in the semifinals against Pasadena Dec. 7. The Bearcubs rallied for two goals in the game’s last six minutes to win it.

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Reported by Robert Lewis