Stanislaus women advance to semifinals with late goal

Maryssa McDuffy's first career goal kept the Warriors season alive as Stanislaus State defeated Cal State L.A., 1-0, in a first round match of the CCAA Women's Soccer Championships Tuesday night.
Stanislaus, which picked up the sixth and final berth of the tournament on the final day of regular season on Saturday, has advanced to the semifinal round. The sixth seeded Warriors will face No. 2 Chico State on Friday at 11 a.m. at Cal Poly Pomona's Kellogg Field.
"We played absolutely amazing soccer tonight. It's one thing to win. It's another to play beautiful soccer and win," head coach Gabriel Bolton said. "We always talk about dominating the ball. I thought we did that tonight especially in the second half."
Stanislaus (11-5-3) and Cal State L.A. were meeting in the CCAA tournament for the third time, each winning once before. Tuesday night, the Warriors completely shut-down the Golden Eagles in the second half and scored late for the win, avenging the 1-0 set-back against L.A. at Warrior Stadium last Thursday.
McDuffy's goal came at 87:40 on an assist from Amanda Woodhouse. Woodhouse had ripped a shot into the box with McDuffy getting the rebound for the goal. McDuffy, a defender, had 11 assists in her career but never scored. The junior's first goal was especially sweet as it extended the Warriors season.
The shutout is the team's ninth of the season and goalkeeper Chelsea Lewandowski's eighth solo shutout. Adding that to a shared shutout, Lewandowski has tied Breanna Vaughan's career mark of 27-and-a-half shutouts.
Stanislaus State improved to 5-3 in CCAA tournament games. It was the Warriors' second straight win over Cal State L.A. during the conference postseason event.
Chico State will be the Warriors' opponent on Friday while top seed Sonoma State faces the winner of Cal Poly Pomona-UC San Diego Tuesday night match. The Warriors and the Wildcats faced each other on Oct. 4 in Chico with Chico State edging a 2-1 win in overtime.

Ramirez nets hat trick, sends Warrior men to semifinals

 Jose Ramirez scored all three Stanislaus State goals as the senior forward lifted the Warriors to an impressive 3-1 win over Sonoma State in a first round match of the CCAA Men's Soccer Championships Tuesday night at Warrior Stadium.
Stanislaus State, the tournament's No. 4 seed, improved to 15-3-1 overall and gets another date with Cal State Dominguez Hills. This time in the semifinals, on Friday at 4:30 p.m., at Kellogg Field on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona. The Warriors upset fifth-ranked Toros on Saturday, 2-0, at Warrior Stadium.
It took the Warriors fast-paced, record-setting offense a little while to get going Tuesday night, but once they kicked the attack into another gear, there was no stopping them. Stan State completely dominated the second half and scored three times within a 14-minute span to blow past the Seawolves.
Sonoma State got on the board with a TJ Perez goal in the 19th minute to go up 1-0. The play was set-up by a little bit of a miscue by the defense as a cross that was not cleared cleanly ended up at Perez's feet for the shot.
But in the second half, the Warriors peppered the Sonoma State defense and goalie Mitch North. They out-shot SSU, 16-4, before the final count of 22-8.
Ramirez headed in his first goal at 64:22 from a Luis Hernandez corner kick. With all 11 Seawolves in the box on the corner kick, Hernandez placed the ball perfectly in front of the near post and Ramirez out-jumped his defenders for the header goal.
It was another header goal by Ramirez just eight minutes later, at 76:04, when a long free kick was beautifully placed into the 6-yard box by Gerardo Cazares. Cazares, the CCAA's leader in assists, now has 10.
Finally, the Warriors put the match away with Hernandez connecting with Ramirez again. A long ball sent in by Hernandez to the top of the box was finished by Ramirez to complete his hat-trick.
Russ Klabough ended up with three saves and the Stanislaus defense limited the Seawolves in the second half as SSU only had one shot on frame.
With three more goals, Ramirez surpassed current teammate Daniel Kuczynski for the career record lead with 23. Ramirez is also the new Stan State career leader with 53 points.
In the other semifinal match Tuesday night, Cal State L.A. defeated UC San Diego, 3-1, and will face Cal Poly Pomona on Friday. The two semifinal match winners will play for the CCAA title on Sunday at 3 p.m.