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In
their first meeting of the season, freshman midfielder
Gerardo
Torres (Norte Vista HS) scored all three
goals for the Cerritos College men’s soccer team in a
3-1 victory over Oxnard College. In the second round of
the Southern California Regional Playoffs on Tuesday,
Torres scored once and assisted on the game-winner, as
the Falcons posted a 2-1 win over the Condors at
Cerritos College. With the win, the #2-seeded Falcons
(18-3-4) will now advance to the third round of the
playoffs, which will be played on December 1 at
Cerritos. As for the Condors, seeded #7, they finish the
year 13-4-6 with two of their losses to the Falcons.
The Falcons will now host #3-seed Santa Ana College (17-4-3)
at 11:00 a.m. on December 1, with the winner advancing
to the state championships. The Dons defeated San Diego
City, 2-0 in the second round. Last year, Cerritos beat
Santa Ana, 1-0 to advance to the state championships.
Although
Cerritos maintained control of the ball for the majority
of the game, the Condors had the first chance of the
contest to get on the scoreboard. After Gabriel Gonzalez
sent a crossing pass in front of the net, William
Gutierrez missed a direct chance to give Oxnard an early
lead in the 18th minute. Just four minutes
later, the Falcons had a solid chance when sophomore
Leo Munoz
(Downey HS) crossed a pass to freshman
Norm
Mariscal (Corona Centennial HS), but his
header was wide.
The Falcons got
on the board first when freshman
Alex Munoz
(Corona Centennial HS) received a pass from
midfield and worked around the Oxnard defender. He then
sent a pass to Torres, whose chip shot went under the
arm of goalkeeper Tommy Ortez. Cerritos took what
appeared to be a commanding 2-0 lead in the 80th
minute after a nice series of passes led to a score.
Munoz started the play in the corner and his pass to
Torres was blocked by Ortez. However, sophomore
Juan Huerta
(Bell HS), who scored two critical goals in last
year’s post-season, kicked in the rebound for a goal.
Oxnard came back right away and cut the lead in half
when Eduardo Ayala scored on sophomore
Ivan Mercado
(Paramount HS).
Cerritos then
controlled the ball for the remainder of the game and
posted the win. Also playing very well for the Falcons
were sophomore
Bryan Mejia
(Montebello HS), who used his speed to create
many of the scoring chances, while sophomore midfielder
Ivan Perez
(Chaparral, NV HS) used his booming leg to clear
away any opposing chances. Seeing action in the back row
for the first time this season was sophomore midfielder
Billy
Gutierrez (Huntington Park HS). With such
a depleted staff due to injures, Gutierrez was called
upon to play in the back row and did an solid job
working alongside freshman
Jonathan Rivas
(Santa Fe HS). |
