LONG BEACH — The Warren girls soccer team scored two goals in the second half to pull off a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Thousand Oaks in the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 final at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach Saturday afternoon.
It was the program’s first CIF-SS title in school history.
Warren junior Allison Bravo scored the game-winner off a cross by senior Alexis Delgado (Cal State Dominguez Hills commit), which put the Bears up 2-1 with 12 minutes to go.
“It felt really good to put that game-winner in,” Bravo said. “I felt a lot of different emotions at the time and I’m just happy that I got to experience this with my teammates, with my sisters.”
Warren senior Mayilen Salazar (Azusa Pacific commit) tied the game at 1 early in the second half.
“Honestly, I’m not the type of person to score or shoot but I knew that I had to do something for my team so I just didn’t think about it,” Salazar said. “It was a lot of emotion. A lot of adrenaline.”
The Bears ratcheted up their attack by switching from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-5-2 formation, which allowed them to overload the Lancers on the wings.
“It took a lot of sweat, heart and tears,” Warren coach Lily Dussan said. “I’m a (2006) Warren alumni. I played there. This is my 14th year coaching, 11th running the program and we’ve put in a lot of work with these seniors, these past four years.”
The Bears improved to 18-3-3 overall.
“We’re making history and we left a legacy here at Warren this year,” continued Dussan, whose team made to the Division 3 semifinals last season.
Thousand Oaks (12-8-3) was led by sophomore Maddie Linville who put the Lancers up 1-0 early in the first half.
However, after that moment, the Lancers’ offense went cold.
“It just wasn’t our day today,” Thousand Oaks coach Clay Cameron said. “They were really organized. That’s a really good team we played, they moved the ball well and they were really structured with their shape and disciplined.”
The Lancers had a quality scoring opportunity in the 62nd minute but could not sneak the ball past Warren’s goalkeeper.
“It was a struggle today,” Cameron continued. “It was back and forth. We definitely would like to go back and have a couple of our chances again and see if we could maybe finish them. We did a pretty good job defensively to keep them away from a lot of really good opportunities but at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough today.”
Both teams made the CIF SoCal Regional Soccer Championships. Brackets will be released Sunday afternoon.
“These last four years hasn’t been easy,” Salazar continued. “It’s been ups and downs but we’ve learned to grow as a team, not give up and honestly, this is my family. I grew to love them. They’re just like my sisters and I love them so much.”