SOCCER: CAMARILLO WINS TITLE.

Byline: ERIK BOAL

Special to the Daily News

With one of the most decorated resumes of any club soccer team in the country, the Camarillo Eagles girls' 17-under team was selected to be featured in a Fox Soccer Channel special that aired earlier this summer entitled, "Where Champions Are Born."

Perhaps the producers of the show should have waited until after the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships to put the finishing touches on the Eagles' segment.

Facing the toughest challenge during their four-year run, the Eagles outlasted the hometown favorite Dallas Texans 3-2 in front of nearly 3,000 spectators Sunday at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, to capture their second national title.

"It was unbelievable. I can't even describe it," said Eagles coach Vince Thomas, whose team won the 14-under championship in 2004. "It was an incredible team effort. They showed so much character and played with a tremendous amount of heart.

"I felt like if we were going to win a national title, I would have to look out there and know that they played the best game of their lives. And they did that."

Emily Cressy, a Buena of Ventura graduate who has signed with Kansas, scored her fourth and fifth goals of the tournament to receive the Golden Boot award.

Cressy gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead and Nicole Sweetman (Oaks Christian of Westlake Village/UCLA) scored the winning goal, before National High School Player of the Year Melissa Henderson closed the gap with her second goal, creating a frenetic final 10 minutes with the Texans relentlessly attacking, trying to net the equalizer.

"What does it take to beat another great team? It takes a group of girls starting fast and scoring an early goal, then demonstrating the ability to respond when the other team scores," Thomas said. "Then you have to defend with your life. After (Henderson) scored to make it 3-2, we responded by making play after play. Every long ball they sent, we kept volleying it out and kicking it out. These girls weren't going to be denied."

The Eagles, who became the first girls' team to win state, Far West Regional League and Region IV titles, joined San Juan Capistrano's So Cal Blues and Illinois' Eclipse Select as the only girls' clubs to win multiple national crowns the past four years.

They did so in similar fashion to their championship run in 2004, rebounding from a pool-play setback Friday to the Texans to win the title, completing a 16-game postseason run with only one loss.

"This was the team I wanted to beat," said Thomas, who returned 12 players from the 14-under national championship squad. "I knew if we could beat Texas, I could have peace as a coach. I could walk away today and know that I've done it all. We played the greatest team we could play and we did something amazing. I couldn't be any prouder of these girls."

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