To win the 2021 NJCAA national championship, Pima College men’s soccer coach Dave Cosgrove was pushed not just to overtime against the No. 1 team in the nation, but to a tense penalty kicks, winner-takes-all showdown.
As Cosgrove consulted with his assistant coaches the pressure grew. He had little time to pick five Aztecs, knowing that anything less than five successful kicks would likely mean defeat.
Here’s the lineup he chose, in order:
Manny Quiroz, sophomore from Sunnyside High School.
Sam Lossou, sophomore from Rincon/University HIgh School.
Jesus Virgen, freshman from Sunnyside High School.
Christian Gutierrez, freshman from Cholla High School.
Francisco Manzo, sophomore from Salpointe Catholic High School.
Cosgrove’s choices endorsed the quality of soccer in Southern Arizona.
All five PCC players sunk their penalty kicks as the Aztecs beat No. 1 Essex Community College of Baltimore County in the NJCAA championship game in Wichita, Kansas.
Beyond that, Pima’s goalkeeper, Juan Suarez of Desert View High School, was the man who blocked two Essex kicks. Talk about a homegrown victory.
Essex entered the match 19-0-1. PIma was 17-1-2. It might’ve been the most compelling soccer game of the 543 Cosgrove has coached since taking charge of PCC’s men’s soccer program in the late 1990s.
“We’ve been very fortunate in both of our national championship games,” said Cosgrove, an Amphitheater High School and UA grad who also coached Pima to the 2018 national championship.
“Essex was so good and sent so many things that created real problems for us. With the penalty kicks, anyone can win, anyone can lose. My heart breaks for those kids because they were really good tonight.”
Cosgrove had been on the other side, coaching the Aztecs to the NJCAA championship game in 1999 and finishing No. 3 in 2015 and 2017.
His 2021 team might’ve been his best yet. They outscored opponents 74-29. Their only loss was to then-undefeated 17-0 Arizona Western College in the final game of the ACCAC regular season; AWC went on to finish No. 3 in the NJCAA Division I championships.
“Our kids have worked really hard for this,” said Cosgrove. “I think they deserve it. There’s an old adage that says coaches lose games and players win games, and certainly this week, this entire year and the last two years, we’ve had the right players to win a lot of games.”
Six months earlier, in June 2021, the delayed 2020 season, delayed and often interrupted by COVID-19 issues, PCC reached the NJCAA semifinals with a 12-1 record. It lost to Southeastern Iowa Community College. But this time the Aztecs beat Southeastern CC 2-0 in the quarterfinals.
Cosgrove’s team then beat No. 4 Georgia Military College 2-0 in the semifinals as Manzo scored the deciding goal and Suarez blocked all GMC shots on goal.
“I feel relieved. It’s a big dream all of us have and a dream come true,” said Suarez.
“Essex was a very tough opponent; very disciplined, very organized and good players especially their Japanese players. We stayed disciplined in the back, kept our shape and defended with our lives.”
Pima men's soccer coach Dave Cosgrove pauses while thanking his wife during an on-campus celebration last year.
Suarez finished the title game with 14 saves. Suarez along with sophomore Ulysses Torres of Sunnyside High School were named to the All-Tournament Team. Lossou and Brian Vu, a sophomore from Rincon/University High School, were named first-team NJCAA All-Americans.
After a welcome-home celebration at the Pima College gymnasium, Cosgrove couldn’t hide his tears while trying to describe what it meant to win a second national championship.
“We’ve come so far,” he told me. “This isn’t an overnight success.”
To get a perspective on Cosgrove’s career, he now ranks No. 4 of all active NJCAA men’s soccer coaches with 392 victories. He trails just Steve Clements of Tyler (Texas) JC, with 507 wins; Jim Kelly of Dupage (Illinois) JC, with 493 victories; and Pepe Aargon of New York’s Herkimer JC, who has 407 wins.
All those men have coached at least five more years than Cosgrove, who is 392-119-32 and had to overcome the ACCAC’s men’s soccer dynasty at Yavapai College — national champs in 1990, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2008 — to become the most successful men’s junior college soccer program in the West.
