Oakland Roots have re-signed former Cal State Northridge forward Johnny Rodriguez ahead of the 2021 USL Championship season. Rodriguez, from California’s Central Valley, helped lead the line for Roots in the Fall 2020 campaign, scoring in both the semi-final and final of the 2020 NISA Fall Championship Tournament.
“We are excited to retain Johnny in our attacking arsenal moving into 2021, said Roots Technical Director Jordan Ferrell. “He is a talented young striker with a lot of potential, which he really started to show in the Fall Tournament. Johnny’s grit and knack for finding the net will definitely cause problems for opposing defenses this season.”
Before transferring to Northridge Johnny Led Fresno City College to the 2017 CCCAA State Championships and was named CCCAA Tournament MVP. While at Fresno City he was chosen as the 2017 NSCAA Division III Junior College Player of the Year and was selected to the NSCAA Division III Junior College first-team All-American in both 2016 and 2017.
Johnny went on to play two years at Cal State Northridge, a Division 1 Big West program. As a Junior, he was second on the team in goals and tied for second in assists. In his senior year, he was named second-team All-Conference while ranking fourth in the Big West in goals scored.