Cypress and Folsom Lake take semifinal wins to set up rematch for 3C2A Women's Soccer State Championship

Tournament Central

SACRAMENTO – Two early goals by Cypress College against City College of San Francisco and one score early in the second half by Folsom Lake versus Saddleback proved to be the keys as the Chargers and Falcons set up a rematch of last year's state championship game with their semifinal wins at the 3C2A Women's Soccer Championship at American River College on Friday.

Folsom Lake, the defending state champion, will take a 22-1-2 record into Sunday's title tilt while Cypress, which was a hard-luck loser in penalty kicks in the 2023 championship, brings a 21-1-3 mark into the matchup.

Sunday's game will be streamed by BAOSN.tv and is available on a pay-per-view basis here.

SEMIFINAL #1 – (S1) Cypress 2, (N2) City College of San Francisco 1
Cypress and San Francisco brought a fast start to their semifinal matchup tallying all three of the game's goals in the first 24 minutes. From there, defense took center stage as the teams held each other scoreless the rest of the way.

The Chargers struck first in the 13^th minute with Megan Alcantra scoring an unassisted goal to bring early momentum. It didn't take long for that momentum to build even stronger as Amber Mielke took an assist from Itzel Ramirez early in the 16^th minute to quickly make it 2-0.

Any thoughts of Cypress running away and hiding for the remainder of the game took a big hit when the Rams responded swiftly in the 24^th minute on Paige Pineda-Aliamus's unassisted goal.

Neither team was able to get a lot of shots during the showdown with each of them getting seven shots. San Francisco was able to put four on goal while the Chargers managed a pair.

The Rams captured the Coast Conference North in 2023, concluding with an outstanding record of 17-3-3.

SEMIFINAL #2 – (N1) Folsom Lake 1, (S2) Saddleback 0
The matchup between the last two state champions was a defensive thriller that saw just 12 combined shots on goal and didn't see a score until a Saddleback own-goal in the 56^th minute.

Each team had six shots but it was a tale of two halves as the Falcons got all of theirs in the first half and the Bobcats had five of theirs in the second. But the decisive moment didn't come on a shot but out of a scramble in front of the goal that Saddleback wasn't able to clear cleanly. The attempt to get it out of there was deflected off a defender's cleat and into the net.

But the game was far from over as both teams fought hard. Saddleback had four shots after falling behind, including a hard-luck attempt by Emery Simis that hit the crossbar in the 90^th minute.

Saddleback, Orange Empire Conference champions, concluded its impressive season with an overall record of 18-3-3.

(Mike Robles)