Not only did the
Cerritos College men's soccer team win their second
state championship in the last three years, they
also won the South Coast Conference title for the
first time in three seasons. With that, the Falcons
ended up sweeping the conference awards, as head
coach
Benny
Artiaga was selected the Coach of the
Year for the second time in his four-year career.
Freshman
Luis
Gonzalez (Long Beach Millikan HS),
who scored all three goals for Cerritos in the state
tournament was named the tournament's Player of the
Year, and voted the conference's Offensive Player of
the Year, while sophomore defender
Jonathan
Rivas (Santa Fe HS) was named
the Defensive Player of the Year.
Gonzalez, who
marveled many with his gifted play and spectacular
goals, led the team with 24 goals on the season and
shared the team lead with 17 assists. Rivas, who
anchored the best defense in the state, scored a
pair of goals on the year. In addition to their
conference awards, Artiaga was also named the Far
West Coach of the Year, while Rivas earned 1st Team
All-NSCAA All-American honors, with Gonzalez being
selected 2nd Team All-American.
Joining the pair
on the All-SCC 1st Team were sophomores
Alex Munoz
(Corona Centennial HS) and
Norm
Mariscal (Corona Centennial HS),
along with freshmen defenders
Rene
Hernandez (Warren HS) and
Fabian Perez (Bellflower HS).
Munoz shared in the team lead with 17 assists and
was second with 10 goals, while Mariscal added three
goals and three assists while seeing time at
defender and forward. Hernandez and Perez were a
part of a great defensive-minded team and combined
for eight assists.
Sophomore
Ricky Reyes
(Hawthorne HS/Pasadena City College), along
with freshmen
Stephan Mongu (Hamilton
HS),
Salvador
Melendrez (Long Beach Millikan
HS) and
Timmy Seo
(Los Alamitos HS) were 2nd Team selections.
Reyes contributed five goals and two assists, while
Mongu was electric at times and scored seven times
while assisting on five others. Melendrez went for
three goals and four assists, while Seo scored five
times and assisted on four others.
|
