Three-peat Undone

Two programs that have been on top of the State rankings for the best part of two decades faced up on Tuesday in an another memorable encounter at Cypress College.

Both teams had won their previous home head-to-head matches in the Orange Empire Conference, and the decisive play-off game between the two teams would come down to knock-out blows. 

Goal-keeper Zaydee Solis left the field with emergency services late in the contest but for those in attendance and concerned, has responded well to treatment and was released late yesterday evening. It was to be the the final iteration of a game that had deteriorated in to a physical battle defined by some strange refereeing decisions.

Not that there weren't moments of quality. Cypress opened the scoring on seven minutes after cutting through the heart of the visitors defense to strike from the edge of the area.

The Hawks responded, and after hitting the woodwork twice, finally found the net. A cross-field ball from Keyla Fragoso was knocked down by Summer Stewart in to the path of the on-rushing Mimi Diaz-Casarrubias who calmly slotted the ball under the Chargers keeper.

The physical battle continued. On the hour mark, a free-kick from 25 yards clipped the underside of the bar on it's way in to the far corner of the net to put the Chargers 2-1 up. The Hawks responded and again hit the goal-frame before the equalizer came from a soft penalty decision which Paige Winters converted from the spot. Another mysterious refereeing decision followed with Diaz-Casarrubias being yellow-carded after winning the ball and being hit late.

All tied after 90 minutes, the referee again imposed his will on the game. This time it was a soft make-up penalty call for the Chargers, which cannoned back off the post and across the face of the goal.

Both teams continued to push and the earlier yellow-card decision came back to haunt the visitors as Diaz-Casarrubias was given a second yellow card to leave the Hawks down to 10 players.

The Hawks didn't deal with the resulting free-kick and amidst appeals for hand-ball, the Chargers found the go ahead goal to defeat the reigning State Champions 3-2.

The 2018 and 2019 Back-to-back State Champions SCC finish the season 18-3-1 and will reflect on an opportunity missed to kick-on to the Regional Finals and the State Final-four.

Thanks go out to the Hawks following in attendance at the game and for their support across the 2021 season.​