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From the outset of
their South Coast Conference game at El Camino
College on Tuesday, the Cerritos College men's
soccer team emphasized that defense was what was
going to lead them to victory. After holding the
Warriors to just one shot on goal, while their
defense helped create their offense, the Falcons
came away with a 4-0 victory. The win improved the
team's record to 15-4-1 overall while they are now
7-3-1 in conference action. The team returns home on
Friday at 3:00 p.m. to host Pasadena City College.
"Coming off the
(3-2) loss to Los Angeles Harbor last Friday, we
tried to get back to our basics and that is defense
first," said head coach
Benny
Artiaga. "We rediscovered our ability
to create our offense from the aggressiveness of our
defense and the guys did a great job of playing the
way we were earlier in the season."
The Falcons wasted
little time getting on the scoreboard, as sophomore
captain
Alex Munoz
(Corona Centennial HS) picked off an
attempted pass and brought the ball up the baseline.
After taking the ball most of the way, he spotted
freshman
Luis
Gonzalez (Long Beach Millikan HS),
who put the first goal on the board in the sixth
minute.
That seemed to
jumpstart the offense, as they had their 4-0 lead
with only 23 minutes expired in the game. The
cushion allowed the team to settle into their
defensive mode, and shut down any offensive attempts
El Camino might have had. It allowed sophomore
goalkeeper
Diego
Millan (Paramount HS) to be
called on to make just one save, as he recorded his
fifth shutout of the year.
In the 12th
minute, sophomore forward
Norm
Mariscal (Corona Centennial HS)
finished off the play that was started by Gonzalez.
Continuing their aggressive nature, freshman
Stephan
Mongu (Hamilton HS) scored in
the 15th minute, with Mariscal recording the assist.
Sophomore
Rickey
Reyes (Hawthorne HS/Pasadena City
College) closed out the scoring in the 23rd
minute with Mongu getting the assist.
"We really came
out focused in the game and played with a lot of
intensity," added Artiaga. "We put a lot of pressure
on them defensively and it forced them to do things
they didn't want. We turned around and used those
opportunities and made them scoring chances. We need
to keep doing more of that to remain successful."
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