Panthers Hailed for 2021 Greatness
For the 2021 Hartnell Women’s Soccer team, no awards or accolades for their incredible season will ever top the thrill of winning the California Community Colleges Athletic Association State Championship on Dec. 5.
But the recognition they have received for individual and team performance has been wide-ranging and enthusiastic, lasting for weeks after they brought home the CCCAA championship trophy and banner.
After the Panthers’ convincing win over Cypress in the title game, 3-0, Head Coach Ivan Guerrero and his assistants stood back and watched their exultant players run down the field together and collapse in a joyful pile. Not only had they capped a 22-2-2 season in the best way possible, they had become the first Hartnell women’s team in history to win a state title in any sport. The previous best for Women's Soccer was reaching the Elite Eight in 2018.
“Seeing how happy the team was – watching them and enjoying that moment was something very, very special, which we’re all going to take forever,” Guerrero said as he and his players were honored on Dec. 14 by the Hartnell Community College District Governing Board.
Earlier that day, they were formally recognized by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, and four days prior, they were cheered like conquering heroes by hundreds of Hartnell employees and students on the Main Campus in Salinas.
“Thank you to Coach Ivan,” said team captain Jada Taylor, speaking for her fellow athletes at the campus rally, “because without him none of us would be here.”
On Dec. 20, State Sen. Anna Caballero visited campus to present certificates of recognition to the women’s champions and Coach Guerrero, as well as the second-place men’s soccer team and their head coach, Daniel Ortega, and also to the women’s and men’s cross country teams, which placed second and third in the state, respectively.
Guerrero’s fellow coaches around the state and across the country also hailed his success as well. He and his assistants – Hugo Gonzalez and Miguel Gutierrez – were named United Soccer Coaches Region Staff of the Year for the Junior College Division III, and Guerrero also was chosen as Head Coach of the Year for the all of CCCAA women's soccer.
The Panthers finished the season ranked No. 2 in the nation for Junior College Division III. Taylor, a sophomore defender from Hollister, was named to the division’s First Team All American squad, as were teammates midfielder Carly Lowi, also a sophomore from Hollister, and forward Belinda Ascencio, a forward from Soledad who earlier was recruited by the University of California, Santa Barbara but opted to play for Hartnell.
Lowi scored a season-total 17 goals, with 12 assists, and Ascencio had 16 goals and 10 assists, with each other most often on the receiving end of those passes. Taylor was the linchpin of the Panthers’ defense, which achieved 14 shutouts and had an 11-game winning streak on their way to the title. Goalie Ency Soto, a sophomore from Everett Alvarez High in Salinas, was obviously critical to that defensive success as well, making 36 saves for a .720 percentage throughout the season and averaging just .63 in goals-against per game.
Taylor and Lowi also made the All-State Team, and they were joined on the North All-Region Team by freshman defender Elisa Solis, from Everett Alvarez High.
Also receiving special recognition was freshman forward Jasmin Castillo from Watsonville, who scored two of her six goals for the season in the title game.
The team’s all-regional makeup was a special point of pride for Guerrero, who pledged to continue that emphasis on local recruitment in the future.
“We stayed true to what we believe the essence of a community college is,” he said, “and we don’t want to deviate from that. We’re going to keep doing this with our community athletes.”