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After their first game of the Citrus
Tournament, the Cerritos College men's water polo team
was feeling good about their 22-13 victory over Santa
Monica College. That feeling seemed to fade after each
following game, as the Falcons dropped their next three
games and saw their season record slip to 10-5 on the
season. Cerritos followed their win with a 19-14 loss to
Ventura College, followed by a heartbreaking 16-15 loss
to Cuesta College, where the Cougars scored at the
buzzer to win. They concluded with an 11-9 loss to Los
Angeles Valley College, with the Monarchs scoring the
final three goals of the game. Cerritos will return to
action when they compete in the Cuesta Tournament on
Friday and Saturday. They were scheduled to host Rio
Hondo College on Wednesday, but the college dropped the
program before the conference season began.
In the win over Santa Monica,
freshman
John Chao
(Cerritos
HS)
scored a season-high six goals to lead the team, as 11
players scored for the Falcons. Freshman
Jose Aguirre
(Downey
HS)
added three goals in the win, while freshmen
Christian
Flores
(Montebello
HS),
Jan-Michael
Pineda
(Cerritos
HS),
Steven
Baughman
(Western
HS)
and
David Correa
(Downey
HS)
each added two goals. Freshman
Kevin Nguyen
(Cerritos
HS)
led the team with four steals, while freshman
Jimmy
Quintana
(Montebello
HS)
assisted on four goals. In the net, freshman goalkeeper
Billy Smith
(Cypress
HS)
turned away nine shots.
Against Ventura, the Falcons played
from behind the majority of the game and were unable to
string any goals together, although they trailed only
6-5 at the end of the first quarter. A bad second
quarter left then behind, 12-7 at halftime and the two
teams traded goals throughout the second half. Flores
and Quintana each scored three goals in the loss, while
10 turnovers hurt the team.
Looking forward to an overtime game
against Cuesta, the Falcons saw Ian Starkie score at the
buzzer to win the game on a goal against back-up
goalkeeper
Cory Pettis
(Warren
HS),
who was seeing his first action all season in goal.
Cerritos fought back from a 12-6 deficit, as sophomore
Omar Ramirez
(Bell
Gardens HS)
scored seven goals in the game, including three during
the comeback and tied the game at 14-14 with 2:20 left
in the fourth quarter. He then gave the team their first
lead since 2-1 in the first quarter on a goal with 2:03
left. Craig Erickson of the Cougars tied the game at
15-15 with 1:41 remaining. On a huge call, freshman
AJ Abrego
(El
Rancho HS)
was called on a kick-out, which put the team shorthanded
with 14 seconds remaining, which helped set up the
game-winning goal. Sophomore
Placido Diaz
(Bell
Gardens HS)
added three goals on the day, while Flores and Abrego
each chipped in with two. Ramirez also added four steals
and two assists, while Pettis did a solid job in goal
and made eight saves.
Cerritos led, 9-8 at the end of the
third quarter against LA Valley, after Abrego scored
with seven seconds left to break the tie. But that would
be all the offense on the day for the Falcons, while the
Monarchs scored the only two goals of the fourth quarter
to post the win. Flores led the team with four goals,
while Ramirez finished with three tallies. Quintana was
the leader on defense with four steals, with Abrego
adding three. Smith returned to the net and registered
six saves. |
