No. 17 Clovis headed to Regional Final after 2-0 upset at No. 8 Butte

OROVILLE – The Clovis Community College men's soccer team is one win away from advancing to the State Championships for the first time in program history.

On Tuesday, the No. 17-seeded Crush made the four-hour trip north to Oroville and came home with a 2-0 upset win over No. 8 Butte College in a third-round game of the Northern California Regional Playoffs.

Clovis scored early against Butte, getting goals in the third minute from Ryan DaRocha and another from Julio Hernandez in the 17^th minute. Goalkeeper Peter Vainauskas totaled 4 saves for the Crush to post their fifth shutout of the season and first of the playoffs.

The Crush, now 12-9-2 overall, advance to Round 4 with a trip to the state final 4 on the line. They will travel to face Central Valley Conference foe Merced College, the No. 5 seed, in a Northern California Regional Final on Saturday (Nov. 26). Game time TBA.

Merced (16-3-3) was a 3-2 winner over No.4 De Anza College in its game on Tuesday.

The two squads have already met twice this season in conference play with Merced winning both by scores of 1-0. The Crush will look to continue their impressive run of in the playoffs after knocking out No. 16 Folsom Lake, No. 1 Fresno, and No. 8 Butte.

One more win will send Clovis to the 2022 CCCAA State Championships on Dec. 2 & 4 at American River College in Sacramento.