“When I first came here, I was really shy and reserved,” the 21-year-old said. “Over the years I’ve made a lot of good friends here. We’ve all become real tight. As far as soccer, I’ve learned so much the past four years. It’s really helped to raise the level of my game.”
By RON ELAND
Stephens Media
To say Micah Miranda’s junior year of college soccer ended with mixed feelings may be a bit of an understatement.
For the past four years, the 2008 Kealakehe High School graduate has been a member of the Chico State Wildcats, a Division II team and member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association. During that time, the team has seen its fair share of success, and this year was no exception, finishing with a mark of 13-4-4.
Once again, the Wildcats qualified for the CCAA tournament, which began Nov. 4 in Turlock, Calif. In the semifinals, Chico State took the lead against Cal State-Dominguez Hills, a team it had beaten 5-0 on Sept. 16.
At the 53-minute mark, Miranda gave his team a 1-0 advantage on an unassisted goal that came from nearly 30 yards out.
“The ball popped out toward me, and I had a little space and took my shot,” he said. “It hit my foot perfectly, and it curled in. It was an amazing feeling.
“That was the first goal of the game and really got the team riled up and got us going. That was probably the best goal of my life and definitely one of the most memorable.”
Eleven minutes later, Miranda had a hand (or foot as the case may be) in the team’s second goal as he was credited with an assist to senior Chris Akwaja. Late in the second half, Akwaja scored the Wildcats’ final goal to secure the 3-0 win.
With the victory, Chico State then advanced to the CCAA title match against Cal State-Los Angeles two days later.
“Going into the finals, we felt great,” Miranda said. “We were going in with a six- or seven-game win streak. We felt unbeatable. We were pretty confident, and we knew what we had to do.”
Cal State-Los Angeles wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard, scoring just three minutes into the contest. It scored again at the 39-minute mark en route to the 2-0 win.
“We started off good,” he said. “We had a lot of chances — probably more than they did. But we had two unlucky defensive errors, and that was the difference. That game stung pretty bad because we knew it was ours for the taking.”
For his efforts, Miranda was named to the CCAA all-tournament team along with Akwaja.
“It felt great — it was definitely an honor,” he said.
By making it to the CCAA final, the Wildcats qualified for the NCAA tournament in Seattle. Chico State drew a familiar foe for its first-round match Nov. 10 — Cal State-Los Angeles.
“We were hoping to play the revenge card,” he said.
What a difference a half made.
The Wildcats went out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Akwaja and Octavio Guzman. But the Golden Eagles, who came in as the 17th-ranked team in the nation, scored twice in the final 25 minutes, knotting it up at 2-2. It remained tied at the end of regulation and overtime, sending it to penalty kicks. Cal State was perfect on its first four PKs, while Chico State managed just one conversion.
“When we went up 2-0, I feel now that we may have gotten a little too confident,” he said. “We felt we had it, but in the second half they came at us pretty hard. And again, we had some unlucky mistakes.”
It was a bit of deja vu for Chico. On Sept. 18, Cal State-Los Angeles scored a pair of late goals with that game ending in a 2-2 tie.
This season, Miranda, a construction management major, started 20 of his team’s 21 games. He scored a pair of goals, tied for a team high five assists and was second on the team with 1,760 minutes played.
Unlike many of his teammates, however, he was not recruited to play soccer at Chico. In fact, he walked on and was able to make the team. He redshirted his freshman year, which means he’ll have another year of eligibility to play next season even though he’s been there for four years.
“When I first came here, I was really shy and reserved,” the 21-year-old said. “Over the years I’ve made a lot of good friends here. We’ve all become real tight. As far as soccer, I’ve learned so much the past four years. It’s really helped to raise the level of my game.”