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After
spotting cross-town rival Long Beach City College to a
1-0 first half lead, the Cerritos College men's soccer
team scored twice in the second half to come away with a
2-1 South Coast Conference win on Friday. The victory
concludes the regular season for the Falcons (11-1-2 in
SCC), who finished in second place in the conference for
the second year in a row. The team heads into the
Southern California Regional Playoffs on a six-game
winning streak and will find out on Monday where they
will be seeded in the playoffs. Cerritos (17-3-4) won
the state championship last year and if they are seeded
in one of the top two spots, they will have home field
advantage through the regionals as long as they win. The
first round starts next Saturday afternoon.
The Vikings
got on the board in the 20th minute to take
an early 1-0 lead. After a Cerritos corner kick, LBCC
midfielder Hugo Ayala cleared the ball deep to midfield
to forward Aaron Gutcher. He then sprinted by the lone
defender and nailed his shot past charging Cerritos
goalkeeper
Diego Milan (Paramount HS) to give Long
Beach the 1-0 advantage. Gutcher nearly extended the
Vikings' lead in the 52nd minute, but his
header off a cross-pass from Ayala hit the crossbar and
bounced out.
Cerritos got
the equalizer in the 57th minute after freshman
Norm
Mariscal's (Corona Centennial HS) shot
was deflected by LBCC goalkeeper Eder Garcia. On the
rebound, sophomore
Bryan Mejia
(Montebello HS) executed a bicycle-kick on the
loose ball and placed it just over Garcia for the goal.
The Falcons
scored the eventual game-winning goal in the 83rd
minute when freshman
Michael Paz
(California HS) broke free up the middle on a
breakaway pass from freshman
Alex Muņoz
(Corona Centennial HS) and beat Garcia with his
shot to give the Falcons the win.
Garcia posted
eight saves in goal for Long Beach, while Milan was
credited with three saves for Cerritos. Sophomore
midfielder
Ivan Perez (Chaparral (NV) HS) led the
team with five shots on goal, as the Falcons finished
with 15 on the day. |
