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Although they lost
their opening game of the South Coast Conference
Tournament, the Cerritos College men's water polo
team rebounded to win their third place match, which
propels them to the Southern California Regional
Championships. The Falcons, seeded #2 entering the
tournament, suffered a heartbreaking 8-7 loss to
eventual tournament champion Mt. San Antonio College
on Friday. However, Cerritos (23-7) responded with a
17-6 win over Chaffey College in the third place
match on Saturday.
Seeded #6 entering
the regional playoffs, Cerritos will face cross-town
rival Long Beach City College in their first game on
Friday at 2:00 p.m. at Golden West College. The
Vikings, seeded #3, came in second place in the
conference tournament and have defeated the Falcons
twice this season. In their first meeting, LBCC
posted an 8-4 win in a conference game and then
defeated Cerritos, 10-4 in the first game of the
Golden West Tournament two days later.
The winner of the
game will face the winner of the game that follows
theirs - either #2 Orange Coast College or their
opponent to be determined. The top three teams from
the Southern California and Northern California
regional championships advance to the state
tournament, which will be held at Merced College
November 20-22.
In the loss to Mt.
San Antonio, the Falcons held a 6-3 lead entering
the fourth quarter, but saw the Mounties scored five
times to pull out the win. Leading, 7-6, Cerritos
saw William Brown tie the game with 1:25 remaining
before Mikey Edwards scored the game-winner on a
rebound with 55 seconds left.
For Cerritos, they
had seven different goal scorers, with sophomore
Chris Argueta (Cathedral HS)
dishing out two assists, while sophomore
Louie Espinoza (Whittier HS) and
freshman
Cory Baccus (Whittier
HS) each had two steals. The team hurt
themselves with 16 turnovers, while sophomore
goalkeepers
Ian Pawlowski (La
Serna HS) and
Josh Del Toro (Pioneer
HS) combined to make nine saves.
Needing a win for
a chance to advance to the regional championships,
the Falcons wasted little time jumping on Chaffey
and led 8-2 by halftime. Although they still
committed 14 turnovers, the team put the pressure on
the Panthers and recorded 24 steals in the victory.
Freshman
Pat Muniz (Santa Fe HS)
led a strong offensive effort with six goals and
four steals, while sophomore
Dan Biag
(Cerritos HS) contributed three goals. The
defense was led by freshman
Jesse Paredes
(Whittier HS), who had six steals, while
Baccus added five steals. Freshman goalkeeper
Kieran Hattie (Sacred Heart
College, New Zealand) played the entire game
and made seven saves.
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