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The Cerritos
College men's water polo team saw their season come
to an end on Friday when they suffered a 12-8 loss
to Long Beach City College in the first round of the
Southern California Regional Playoffs, which are
being played at Golden West College. The Falcons
(23-8) were seeded #6 in the playoffs, while the
#3-seeded Vikings advance to the next round. It was
the third time this year that Long Beach City
defeated Cerritos.
"One thing I told
the players after the game is that each season we
seem to be knocking on the door to the state
championships," said head coach
Joe Abing.
"We're getting closer to getting back and we're
going to be there. I think what hurt us most was our
loss to Mt. San Antonio in the conference
tournament. It really affected our seeding in the
playoffs, where we could have faced teams that we've
already defeated this year (Grossmont and Ventura).
But it was close late into the game, but Long Beach
was able to execute where we couldn't."
It was 9-8 Viking
lead in the fourth quarter until LBCC scored to make
it 10-8 off a Falcon turnover. After a Cerritos
timeout with 3:40, they looked to set up for a goal
that would get them back in the hunt for the win.
But, a missed shot, followed by a Long Beach goal
put the Falcons behind by three and they never
recovered.
Leading the team
in the game was the trio of sophomores
Miguel
Villalobos (Whittier HS) and
Ryan Tamula (Cerritos HS),
along with freshman
Cory
Baccus (Whittier HS), who each
scored twice. Sophomore goalkeeper
Ian
Pawlowski (La Serna HS) played
the entire game and made 11 saves.
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