Stanislaus women’s soccer earns NCAA tournament win on golden goal
Jordan Moineau picked a perfect time to score her first goal of the season.
The Cal State Stanislaus junior accounted for a dramatic golden goal 1:45 into the second overtime Thursday night that gave the Warriors a 2-1 win over Seattle Pacific. The win was the Warriors’ first in the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m just so proud of the performance tonight,” Stanislaus coach Gabriel Bolton said. “In very challenging conditions, we battled a terrific opponent and came away with our first NCAA victory.”
The Warriors (14-4-1) upset Seattle Pacific (12-5-3), a virtual home team on a 32-degree night. Stanislaus will meet top-seeded Western Washington on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Freshman sensation Jade Poon had given Stanislaus a 1-0 lead in the 52nd minute.
MJC women celebrate – Modesto Junior College, the Big 8 Conference champion, emptied its bench and gave its entire roster playing time during its 1-1 tie against Delta at the MJC West Campus field. The Pirates (18-1-2, 11-1-2), ranked second in Northern California and fourth in the state, picked up its goal when Andrea Zaragoza scored off an assist from Tyler Fenton.
“We entered 25 players, which included three goalkeepers who played one-third of a game each,” coach Steve Aristotelous said. “It’s been a great season, and it was my way of paying tribute to all of them for their hard work the past four months.”
Aristotelous believes the team has earned home-field advantage throughout the upcoming NorCal playoffs.
Water Polo
Ripon, Oakdale advance – Ripon High’s boys and Oakdale High’s girls advanced to Saturday’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division II finals, with the Indians beating Dixon 16-6 while the Mustangs topped Christian Brothers (Sacramento) 15-9 at Whitney High School in Rocklin.
Now, they’ll each face a Rio Americano (Sacramento) team that they’ve already defeated this season. The boys game starts at 11 a.m., and the girls will follow at 12:30 p.m.
Ripon defeated Rio 12-11 at the DeLong Tournament last month, but the Raiders were without top player Ian Brady for most of the game.
“He’s a phenomenal player,” said Indians coach Erik Zador, son of the late water polo legend Ervin Zador. “He’s probably one of the best players in Northern California.”
Rio Americano has won the D-II title every year since 2010 – one year before the Ripon boys program was launched.
“We’re just a small, eight-man team,” said Zador, who has two freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors on his roster. “For us to be in the final, with a freshman (Jacob Thompson) in the cage, we’re very excited.”
Against Dixon, Zach Scudder had eight goals for the Indians and Nathaniel Gagnon had 10 steals, as the Ripon defense frustrated the Rams throughout.
“I think the way we played against Dixon has (Rio) more worried than they’ve been,” said Zador, whose team fell to the Raiders 21-9 in the 2012 semifinals. “They usually just whomp on everybody in our division, but for the first time, they’re not as strong as they’ve been.”
For defending champion Oakdale High, facing Rio Americano in the final is getting to be a habit. All told, the teams have met eight times in the past three seasons, including the last two section finales. But the Mustangs have won their last three matchups – twice this season.
So, is Oakdale now in Rio’s collective head?
“To some extent … maybe?” said Mustangs coach Diane Kline. “But that doesn’t necessarily give us an advantage. Rio beat us early last year, and that made our girls more motivated. So, I don’t want to be that presumptuous.”
Volleyball
Pitman 3, St. Mary’s 2 in Turlock – The Pride was extended to five games for the second time in less than two weeks, after not having gone five since 2011.
Top-seeded Pitman beat the Rams 20-25, 25-18, 25-20, 20-25 15-11 in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs. Lindsey Vander Weide, who has verbally committed to Oregon, had 23 kills, while setter Maddy Halteman had 51 assists.
The Pride (39-1) will take on the winner of No. 5 Granite Bay-No. 4 St. Francis on Tuesday in Turlock.
Escalon 3, Amador 0 in Escalon – The Cougars (26-9) reached the second round of the D-IV tournament with a 25-17, 25-22, 25-23 victory. Kylee Irwin-Paz led the team with 10 kills and 14 digs, while Brooke Silva added 16 digs and Maddie Nicholas had 15. Taylor Laugero totaled 25 assists. Up next for Escalon is a date Thursday with No. 1 Sonora, a 3-0 winner over Ripon Christian.
Basketball
MJC women win – Sophomore forward Brianna McGinness scored 29 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead MJC (1-2) to a 64-57 win over College of Marin during the first round of Las Positas’ Hawk Classic. Freshman Taylor Martinez added 14 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots for the Pirates, who had lost their last 17 games stretching to last season.
Point guard Diana Carmona had nine points and six assists. Modesto advances to the semifinals today at 5 p.m. against Cuesta (1-0), which defeated Los Medanos.
This story was originally published November 13, 2014 at 11:42 PM with the headline "Stanislaus women’s soccer earns NCAA tournament win on golden goal."