Just 10 days
earlier, the Cerritos College men's soccer team
was upset, 3-1 by Pasadena City College in a
South Coast Conference game. After a thrilling
win over nationally-ranked Mt. San Antonio
College, the Falcons, ranked #3 nationally, were
upset again, this time 1-0 by Long Beach City
College on Tuesday. With the loss, Cerritos is
now 12-3-1 overall and 4-2-1 in SCC play. They
will look to right the ship on Friday when they
travel to Compton College for a 4:00 p.m. match.
"The game was a tale of two stories. Long Beach came out and
dominated the first half" said head coach
Benny Artiaga. "They got their
goal in the 45th minute after some shaky
goalkeeping. In the second half we did a few
things well but not enough to put the ball
away."
The game remained scoreless until added time
late in the first half. Viking sophomore
Jose Caniz saw
his corner kick find the head of freshman
Juan Guzman near the back post. Guzman then
re-directed the kick past Falcon goalie
Pedro Velasquez (Colegio-Metropolitano,
Guatemala) for the eventual
game-winner.
"You're
trying to give your keeper confidence by
playing him in a crucial game but I guess
this game was a little too big for our
goalkeeper," added Artiaga. "But it wasn't
just him. As a whole, we gave away the first
half and it was by far our worst performance
of the year. I was very disappointed in our
performance today."
Velasquez totaled seven saves during the
first half and sophomore
Diego Millan
(Paramount HS) had three saves in a
scoreless second for Cerritos.
