On the road to a championship

 A vibrant crowd of a few hundred, a home playoff game, and an opponent rolling with momentum was the formula the Santa Ana men’s soccer team used as motivation to get a 4-0 win over College of the Canyons Nov. 28, putting the Dons in the final four of the California Community College Soccer State Championships.
   The Cougars were feeling good with a three-game winning streak and fresh off a win over the No. 1 seeded Rio Hondo College. Despite the odds, Santa Ana Head Coach Jose Vasquez was confident.
   “If we face Canyon, we will be the host and use that to our advantage,” Coach Vasquez said.
   Forwards Marco Ramirez and Adrian Negrete continued to dominate for the Dons. Ramirez scored twice and had an assist, while Negrete added a goal and assist of his own in the win over Canyons. Combined, the two scored six goals and six assists in three post-season games.
   The win marks the fourth time in six years that Santa Ana College has advanced past the Southern California Regional finals.
   “They continued the tradition of excellence,” Vasquez said.
   Vasquez, who is in his sixth year as head coach, praised the team that helped him exceed 100 wins in his career this season.
   It wasn’t a smooth ride through the season though; the Dons started the year with three wins in their first 11 games, amounting a 3-4-4 record.
   After a shaky pre-season, was deemed as “terrible” and the “worst ever,” by Vasquez, but the Dons built momentum down the stretch in conference play.
   Santa Ana enjoyed a nine-game winning streak in which they outscored opponents 33-8 en route to their 16th straight Orange Empire Conference Championship. They ended the season with a 12-5-4 overall record, 10-2-2 in conference.
   Negrete led the team in points with 43, adding 14 goals and 15 assists, while Ramirez led the team in goals with 18 and also added four assists.
   Last season’s leading scorer, forward Daniel Ruiz, finished a well played season with four goals and 11 assists. Freshman forward Cesar Silva was third on the team in both goals scored and assist, eight and four respectively.
   Adrian Garcia and Felipe Miranda, both goalkeepers, split time in front of the net averaging 1.59 goals against.
   The road to the playoffs started at home with the fourth seeded Dons up against the 13th seeded Cypress College in the first round. Santa Ana dominated as Miranda faced only one shot on goal in the first half while five different Dons scored on their way to a 5-0 win.
   In the second round, SAC faced fifth seeded Golden West College, a team they had a 1-1 record against this season. Golden West featured Conference co-MVP, goalkeeper Bill Hambelton.
   Though the game was relatively tranquil through the first 15 minutes, the calm gave way to an extremely physical game. The two teams committed 48 fouls between them. The Rustlers were given five yellow cards while Santa Ana
received three.
   With the Dons trailing 2-1 at the end of regulation and into extra minutes, Santa Ana was fouled in the box and was awarded a penalty kick. Ramirez lined up his shot and tied the game 2-2 sending the game into overtime.
   “I reminded them before overtime to show me what I saw against Santa Barbara
earlier this season,” Vasquez said. “They gave me 30 minutes of that.”
   Midfielder Richard Rivera got the game-winning goal off a Ruiz assist in the 114th minute to give Santa Ana a 3-2 come-from-behind win, advancing them to the third round against Canyons.
   This will be the fourth time in six years that the Dons have advanced to the final four of the state championships with two of those seasons ending with a state title.
   The Dons have three teams standing between them and a state championship. Mt. San Antonio College, Fresno City
College and their next opponent Taft College, who defeated the Dons 4-3 in a physical game that saw two red cards and six yellow cards earlier in the year.