For the first time in school history, the Cerritos College men’s soccer team went up north to play in the Hartnell Tournament and came home with the championship. Traditionally known to have teams from the previous state championship tournament competing, the Falcons showed their ability to strike offensively at any given time, while at the same time, they were able to shut down some of the tougher teams in Northern California.

    The Falcons opened with a 1-1 tie against Canada College after allowing a late goal, but advanced to the semi-finals by winning on penalty kicks. Next was a 3-0 win over Hartnell College in which both teams played extremely physical. In the championship game, the Falcons posted a 3-1 win over Cabrillo College and dominated the match from start to finish. With the wins over the weekend, the team is now 4-0-1 on the season, and it also extends their unbeaten streak to 20 games (17-0-3), dating back to last season. The team will now travel to Rio Hondo for a 4:00 p.m. game on Tuesday.

    In the first game, the Falcons jumped on the board in the third minute, as freshman Michael Paz (California HS), who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, received a pass and eluded his defender in a wide angle before making a crossing pass to freshman Miguel Vargas (Artesia HS). The pass from Paz was perfect, as Vargas was able to head it into the net for an early Cerritos lead. The team had several chances to expand their lead, but missed on several point blank shots. That would come back to hurt them, as the Colts tied the game in the 79^th minute on a one-timer off a long pass. However, the Falcons were able to advance to the next round after winning on penalty kicks.

    The physical play against Hartnell in the semi-finals seemed to spark on the Falcons, as they slowly found themselves in better scoring situations. Right before the end of the first half, Cerritos struck when freshman Alex Munoz (Corona Centennial HS) fed a pass to sophomore Leo Munoz (Downey HS), who made a great first touch and put an equally great shot away for a goal. The pressure by the Falcons continued in the second half and the team was awarded a penalty kick after freshman Norm Mariscal (Corona Centennial HS) was fouled in the box while putting pressure on the goalkeeper. Sophomore Billy Gutierrez (Huntington Park HS) stepped in a drilled the ball into the back of the net for the team’s second goal. They closed out the scoring in the 80^th minute after freshman Ramon Torrez (South Gate HS) made a great individual play and took two defenders before laying the ball off to sophomore Andy Rico (Lynwood HS), who only needed to touch the ball to get it into the net.

    Aggressiveness was the name of the game in the championship match, as the Falcons made an early statement when sophomore Brian Alvarez (Salesian HS) had a clear shot in the first 30 seconds of the match, but shot just wide to the left. That sent shockwaves through the Hartnell team and had them back on their heels the rest of the first half. With the pressure on by Cerritos, they finally got one into the net in the 21^st minute when Alex Munoz made two great cuts and was ready to shoot, until Paz stepped in and took a remarkable shot into the right corner of the net.

    By the second half, the Falcons seemed to have the game under control and added more offense after Rico made a great play to turn on a defender and sent an ever better crossing pass to Vargas, who first stopped the ball and then drilled it into the net. The team closed out the tournament in the 60^th minute when sophomore Brian Mejia (Montebello HS) started the play with a great sideline run and sent a crossing pass to Rico, who put the ball away with a great strike. As he has done all season, sophomore goalkeeper Ivan Mercado (Paramount HS) was a wall in the net and allowed just two goals against some of the tougher teams in the state. Over the course of the weekend, he made 16 saves.