08.29.07 - Gerardo Torrez took a pass from teammate Leo Munoz in the 15th minute of play to score against Compton College Wednesday afternoon. Photo gallery

    Usually, when a team opens the season playing back-to-back games, there’s a strong chance that the intensity level tends to diminish as the game progresses. After posting a 3-1 win over Golden West College on Tuesday, the Cerritos College men’s soccer team was faced with playing South Coast Conference opponent Compton College in a non-conference game the following day. After opening up a 1-0 lead, the Falcons allowed a goal, but scored right away to regain the lead and then another one late in the game to secure another 3-1 victory.

    The team will now travel to Hartnell College to play three games in a row in a tournament starting on Friday. They open with Canada College on Friday at 3:00 p.m. and a win would put them up against Fresno City College on Saturday. The Falcons defeated the Rams in the state semi-final game last year.

    “We lacked a little of the intensity we had in yesterday’s game,” said head coach Benny Artiaga. “But we picked it up when we needed to and got some insurance late in the game. We have three tough games coming up, so hopefully playing back-to-back this week will help prepare them even more.”

    The Falcons (2-0-0) got on the board in the 15^th minute when sophomore Leo Munoz (Downey HS) stole the ball, dribbled it downfield before feeding a pass to freshman Gerardo Torrez (Norte Vista HS) in the box, where he scored past Tartar goalkeeper Anthony Plascencia. On the goal, Plascencia seemed to be screened by his defender, because he didn’t even move when the ball was shot.

    It was only two minutes later that Compton tied the game, as Mario Morales fed a pass to Ramon Guevara, who scored past a surprised Ivan Mercado (Paramount HS). From that point on in the game, Mercado was rarely tested and finished the game with three saves.

    Cerritos took a 2-1 lead in the 27^th minute, as sophomore Andy Rico (Lynwood HS) scored on a rebound off a shot from sophomore Brian Alvarez (Salesian HS). Neither team created much in the way of offense in the second half until freshman Alex Munoz (Centennial Corona HS) cleared a Compton chance and pushed the ball all the way down the field. He sent a nice pass to sophomore Jose Guzman (St. John Bosco HS), whose shot hit the cross bar. Less than a minute later, with the Falcons continuing their pressure, freshman Raul Dominguez (Animo HS) scored on a header off a miss from Munoz.