REDDING, CA (MPG) – Having graduated seven seniors in 2024, this season hasn’t always been an easy one for the Williams varsity boy’s soccer team, and despite suffering just one loss this year, haven’t always played to the standard to which they have been accustomed.
Yet over this past week, the ‘Jackets adjusted their mindset and stepped up their game, which in turn translated to a second straight Northern Section CIF Division III title, their third in four years, after they came from behind to edge Colusa 2-1 in a match played on Mar. 1 at Enterprise High School in Redding.
Colusa on Mar. 1.
An intense match, played between the two county and Sacramento Valley League rivals, No. 3 Williams came out as the aggressor on offense and held a distinct possession advantage, but the No. 4 seeded RedHawks’ defense proved to up to the challenge.
Nevertheless, as the half progressed, both teams had chances off set pieces, but neither could break through and as a result, the score remained 0-0 at intermission.
However, the back half of the match was a different story as the pace and the pressure on both sides increased.
Williams had the first opportunity of the second half when Colusa goalkeeper Oscar Ramos had the ball slip just past his dive, but an alert play by his teammate Ricardo Hernandez, who was guarding the goal line, cleared it away.
Seemingly encouraged by the save, the RedHawks then drew first blood in the 53rd minute when after Cesar Cruz was fouled in the box, Victor Lopez stepped up to take the penalty kick and drilled it into the right corner of the net.
championship game held at Enterprise High School in Redding on Mar. 1.
Still, the defending champs were not going down without a fight and drew even three minutes later when a Yellowjacket corner kick bounced around in front of the goal and was headed in by Gerardo Navarro to make the score 1-1.
Over the next 16 minutes, both teams made frantic runs, but the match came down to a bit of gamesmanship on the part of two of the ‘Jackets most experienced players in Ernie Lemus and Leo Hernandez.
In the 76th minute Lemus was fouled earning the Yellowjackets an indirect kick several yards outside the penalty area.
As the two teammates stood over the ball, Hernandez ultimately took the shot and buried it, something he explained had been the plan he and Lemus had worked out prior to the kick.
“Ernie told me he was going to fake taking the kick and when he did I saw the hole open up in the wall and put it in the right corner.”
It would prove to be the game winner, because in spite of desperate attempts by Colusa to level the match in the time remaining, the ‘Jacket defense, led by Andrew Bautista and Jorge Saavedra, fended off the RedHawk charge.
scored the leveling goal before Williams went on to defeat Colusa 2-1.
For Hernandez, who has been part of the Yellowjackets’ three most recent championships, the difference in the match boiled down to experience because despite being down a goal there was never a sense of panic.
“We’ve been here before,” said the four-year starter. “We knew that sections are tough, so we just kept our heads down and played. Once we scored the go-ahead goal, we knew it was over.”
Overall, the win marked the fifth section crown in team history for Williams, with each one having the common denominator of head coach Humberto Guzman.
Guzman was a star player in the Yellowjackets’ first championship back in 2009 and has coached the squad to its other four wins, but said this latest one might have been the most challenging of his tenure.
“This has been a rocky season for us,” said both Guzman and assistant coach Anabel Jacobo. “We had a talk earlier this week and basically said that we either are going to win or sit home and watch. We worked on our chemistry and it paid off.”
To get to the final match the ‘Jackets first had to knock off No. 2 Winters, the only team to beat them this year, and did just that with a 3-1 win in the semifinal round played on the road.
Leo Esparza scored twice and Hernandez got one in the payback victory over the Warriors.
As for the RedHawks, who reached the championship game for the first time since winning it in 2020, they are to be commended for their spirited effort, particularly by the defense unit led by seniors David Garcia and Francisco Hernandez.
Both teams had their season’s continue for at least one more match in the CIF NorCal Division V Boys Championship, which began on Mar. 4 with No. 7 Williams traveling to San Francisco to play No. 2 Lowell, while No. 8 Colusa was in Oakland to take on No. 1 Castlemont.