Cuyamaca Coyotes Capture the 3C2A Men’s Soccer StateChampionship for the First Time in College History
The Coyotes are winning titles and building teams
Contact: Michael Navarre
December 20, 2024
El Cajon, CA - The Cuyamaca College men’s soccer team traveled to Sacramento to earn their first ever State Championship in a win over Butte College 2-0. Hosted at American River College during the first weekend of December, the Coyotes were looking to earn the title after an impressive six straight wins during the playoffs.
This is the second year that the Cuyamaca Men's Soccer program has earned the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference (PCAC) championship. Additionally, Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu claimed his fourth title as PCAC Men's Soccer Coach of the Year, and Enrique 'Kike" Rodriguez was named PCAC Player of the Year. The championship was the first for the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference.
"It's a dream come true," said head coach Brian Hiatt Aleu. "When we started the program 12 years ago we wanted to put Cuyamaca on the map, becoming competitive, grinding, getting any games we could. Once we started becoming a little successful, then all of a sudden more people wanted to play us and then we start making playoffs, winning conference titles, start making noise and people start finding out who you are.”
Two goals by Esteban Salais in the early minutes of each half provided the momentum for Cuyamaca College to take the lead. The Coyotes took the upper hand in the game early in the 11th minute when Ali Almaliki, who had Friday's heroics when he drilled a direct kick into the back of the net for an overtime score against Canada, gained back control of the ball along the endline. He then lofted a nice pass to Salais on the far side who headed it in for a 1-0 lead.
Cuyamaca carried that goal-lead into halftime and then in the 59th minute struck again when Salais took a long pass from beyond midfield to the right side where he drilled in a shot to the left side of the net and big 2-0 advantage. The Coyotes staved off four shots by Butte down the stretch, picking up a save from Manuel Diaz and blocking two others. The Roadrunners had three consecutive corners in the final minutes to try and get a last-second score but were turned away each time.