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10.03.07
- Austin Cooper attempts to score vs. Long
Beach City College Wednesday afternoon. |
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Photo
Gallery |
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If
anything, the Cerritos College men’s water polo team can
walk away from their 11-6 South Coast Conference loss
against Long Beach City College on Wednesday knowing
they had their chances to stay within striking distance
of the Vikings. The Falcons missed four great scoring
chances in the game, which contributed to their stress,
as they tried to force the ball inside on several
occasions. With the loss, the Falcons, ranked #7 in the
state, drop to 9-3 overall and 3-1 in the SCC, while
third-ranked Long Beach City improved to 9-6 overall and
2-0 in the SCC. Cerritos will now host Merced College in
a non-conference game at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Early in the
game, the Falcons found themselves down by as much as
4-1, as Brian Mattingly scored twice for LBCC. But
sophomore
Austin Cooper (Downey HS) scored with 13
seconds left to get to within 4-2 by the end of the
first period. Missing a chance to get to within 4-3 was
sophomore
Jimmy
Quintana (Montebello HS), who was stopped
on a great save by goalkeeper George Albertson. In fact,
Quintana was stopped once again later in the game by the
Viking goalkeeper, while freshman
Dan Biag
(Cerritos HS) was shut down on a penalty throw in
the third period. All of those chances could have
changed the strategy of the game, as the Vikings were
able to slow the pace of the game down with their
comfortable lead.
The Falcons were
able to tighten up on defense in the second half and
even shut out LBCC in the fourth period. The only
problem was, the Vikings were equally as stingy with
their defense and shut down Cerritos in front of the
net, leaving them to take lower percentage outside
shots.
After freshman
Ryan
Tamula (Cerritos HS) scored with 3:20
left in the second quarter to get the Falcons to within
6-3, that would turn out to be the closest they would
get. Mattingly led the Vikings with four goals, while
the duo of Quintana and Cooper led Cerritos with two
goals each. The Falcon goalkeeping duo of freshman
Josh Del
Toro (Pioneer HS), who started the game,
and sophomore
Alan Nevarez
(Downey HS/Long Beach City College) combined to
make eight stops on the day. |
