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Photo by
Juan Velez.
Late goal ends seasons
for Cerritos. |
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On their road to
winning the state championship last season, the
Cerritos College men's soccer team defeated rival
Mt. San Antonio College four times, with the last
being a 1-0 win in the state championship game. If
the Falcons were going to make their fourth trip to
the state tournament in the last five years, it
would have to be with a win over the Mounties.
However, on Saturday, Cerritos saw their 1-0 second
half lead disappear, as Mt. SAC scored twice in the
final 15 minutes to pull out a 2-1 win. The
#3-seeded Falcons (19-3-2), who reached the state
championship game in 2004, while winning the title
in 2006 and 2008, must now wait until next season to
try and get back to the tournament.
"This game was
very eye-pleasing to the fans and it's why we
compete and play sports," said Falcon head coach
Benny Artiaga. "It was a game where
momentum shifted back and forth and each team waited
for the other to make a mistake. We made two
careless mistakes in the back and they were right
there to capitalize on them."
Leading 1-0 on
a penalty kick by sophomore
Fabian
Perez (Bellflower HS) in the
62nd minute after sophomore
Luis
Gonzalez (Long Beach Millikan HS)
was pulled down in the box by Abel Terefi, the
Falcons turned the ball over in their own territory
in the 75th minute. Spencer Jones sent a crossing
pass through the box to Heriberto Perez, who drilled
a shot past freshman goalkeeper Jhovanny
Hernandez (Huntington Beach HS)
to tie the game.
The goal came
right after both Hernandez and the cross bar
turned away the Mounties in the 73rd minute. Forcing
the issue, both Jairo Aquino and Aaron Salazar were
each in line to score, but the first shot was saved
and the second hit the crossbar, but was ruled to
not have crossed the goal line. But the turnover two
minutes later allowed Mt. SAC to tie the game.
Another miscue in
the back resulted in the game-winning goal in the
88th minute, as Salazar received a nice pass from
Ponce, who had Hernandez all alone. He roped a shot
past a diving Hernandez for the goal.
"I thought Jhovanny
did a phenomenal job in goal for us today," said
Artiaga. "He kept us in the game with numerous saves
in the first half and gave us a chance to win."
The Falcons had
limited scoring chances, while the Mounties were
turned away several times. Gonzalez had his best
scoring chance in the fifth minute, but his shot was
wide. As for Hernandez, he stoned Christian Alvizar
in the 28th minute and also made huge saves on Jones
and Salazar in the first half.
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