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The Cerritos College men's soccer
team took their first step towards challenging for the
South Coast Conference championship after they posted a
2-0 conference-opening win at East Los Angeles College
on Tuesday night. Entering the game, the Huskies (5-4-3)
were ranked 20th in the country. With the win, the
Falcons are now 7-2-1 overall and are unbeaten in their
last eight games, while they are now 1-0-0 in SCC play.
Cerritos will host Compton College on Friday at 4:00
p.m. in another conference game.
"East Los Angles resorted to long
balls because our defense really established itself
early," said Falcon head coach
Benny Artiaga,
who was without the services of freshman defender
Eusabio
Alvarez
(Western
HS),
who was sitting out due to a red card in the previous
game. "It doesn't matter who is in the lineup because
our defense understands they are the key to the game. To
our advantage, we stifled any attack they thought they
could bring."
Freshman forward
Andy Rico
(Lynwood
HS),
who was making his first start of the season, showed
great patience and took full advantage of his
opportunities. In the 22nd minute, he received a
throw-in by sophomore defender
Marco Pulido
(South
Gate HS)
and headed the ball into the goal for a 1-0 Cerritos
lead. Pulido, who was asked to handle more
responsibilities with the absence of Alvarez, made his
presence felt with his hands. Not five minutes later, he
set Rico up for another scoring opportunity on another
throw-in, but his shot went off the crossbar.
The lead was tested by the Huskies,
who started to put more pressure on sophomore goalkeeper
Miguel Lopez
(Vocational
Tech, NV HS),
who was up to the test. In the 42nd minute, Lopez came
up with a huge save and started the offense in the other
direction, which resulted in a missed scoring
opportunity by freshman midfielder
Juan Davila
(Birmingham
HS).
Another huge save was made by Lopez in the 62nd minute
to preserve the shutout, as he extended himself fully to
knock the ball away. The shout win was the fifth in the
last six games for the Falcons, who have used the tandem
of Lopez and freshman
Ivan Mercado
(Paramount
HS)
in goal.
Cerritos put the game on ice in the
71st minute, as Pulido sent a long pass into the ELAC
zone, where Rico stole the ball and chased the ball down
toward the net. He then made a great individual move to
clear past the sweeper and struck a phenomenal shot into
the far post past the diving East LA goalie, Martin
Romero.
"This was a great win for us because
it sets the tone for the rest of the season," added
Artiaga, who felt the game had a playoff atmosphere.
"They were ranked 20th in the nation, but our boys took
that personally and made it a point to show that we were
a better team today. The performance by Andy (Rico)
shows how diverse we are and how many different lineups
we can throw at teams." |
