SRJC (22-0) advances to next weekend's State Final Four

Next stop for the Santa Rosa JC men's soccer team, the State Final Four.

The top-seeded Bear Cubs (22-0-0) had a tougher time than expected scoring against visiting American River (No. 5, 17-6-1) in the thi rd round of the NorCal playoffs Saturday, but managed a 1-0 win to earn a spot in next weekend's four-team affair in Fresno matching the top two teams from Northern California against the top two in Southern California.

SRJC will go to Fresno as the top NorCal team and open Saturday at 2 p.m. against the No. 2 SoCal squad. Rio Hondo. The Final Four is at Fresno Pacific University.

In the other NorCal third-round game, Cabrillo edged West Valley, 1-0. In the SoCal playoffs, Santa Ana beat East L.A., 2-1, and Rio Hondo defeated L.A. Harbor, 3-1.

"It was closer than I thought it would be," said SRJC coach Marty Kinahan, who won the state championship in 2001 and 2002. "We dominated most of the match but couldn't finish."

The game, played in front of 500 fans, was somewhat tainted by a controversial call early in the second half after the Bear Cubs had taken a 1-0 lead on a goal by Moises Medrano.

ARC's Clemente Fonseca's flip throw from the sidelines headed right for SRJC goalie Tebias Mason, who appeared to misplay the high ball, which ended up in the goal for an apparent game-tying score.

But referee Said Ravanfar waved off the goal, saying ARC players had made sufficient contact with Mason to cause the bobble.

"He's seven feet tall, he dropped the ball and the ref bailed him out," said ARC coach Paul Hansen. "Nobody touched him."

Mason, actually 6-8, said as the throw-in was headed his way, he spied ARC's Matt Watts.

"He dropped his head down and hit me," said Mason. "We knew they planned on doing that if they got the chance."

Kinahan admitted the Bear Cubs were fortunate.

"It was a close call that could have gone either way," he said.

"You called a real good game except for that call," Watts said to Ravanfar after the match.

"A quarterfinal game and you let a call like that decide a match . .. incredible," said ARC's Kebba Manjang.

Kinahan said, "Tebias is so big, we knew they would try to put a body on him."

The Bear Cubs did dominate, outshooting the visitors 10-2 in the first half.

They finally scored a minute after halftime when Travis Britt, whose hard-nosed play fired up his teammates, took a ball from Ryan Bibilone and took a shot.

"I had a real good look but it was deflected by a defender," he said. "Moises got to it."

Medrano's shot was also hit by a defender but it managed to creep over the goal line.

"I'm glad they called off their goal ... the way we outplayed them, I didn't want us to allow a sloppy one," said Kinahan.

Mason admitted he may have made "a mental mistake" in taking his eye off the ball."

Kinahan said the Bear Cubs "have to play a whole lot better if we hope to win two next weekend in Fresno."

The physical match was followed by some jawing, jostling and shoving when play ended.

"That's the way they are," said SRJC defender Adam Shields of the Beavers. "It got nasty because we dominated and they didn't like it."