On their way to
the Cuesta Tournament, the Cerritos College men's
water polo team made a stop at Ventura College for a
non-conference game. Despite six goals from
sophomore
Cory Baccus (Whittier HS), the
Falcons dropped an 8-7 decision. But they rebounded
by winning three of four games at the tournament to
improve their season record to 11-8. Cerritos will
now host rival Long Beach City College in a South
Coast Conference match at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday.
At the tournament,
Cerritos opened with a 9-3 win over Sierra College
and followed that with a 15-8 victory over San
Joaquin Delta College. On the second day, they
suffered a 10-5 loss to Santa Rosa College, but
responded with a 10-6 victory over Cabrillo College.
Known for their
balanced scoring, the Falcons had seven different
players score in the win over Sierra with Baccus and
sophomore
Pat Muniz
(Santa Fe HS) each leading the team with a
pair of goals. Defensively, the team registered 18
steals with freshman
Miguel Quijada (El Rancho HS)
finishing with four steals, while Baccus and
freshman PJ Gabayeron
(Cerritos HS) each added three steals. The
freshmen duo of
Justin
Calderon (El Rancho HS) and
Andrew Castro (Downey HS) each
finished with five saves.
Baccus and Muniz
continued their hot scoring, as each found the back
of the net four times against Delta, while Castro
played the entire game in goal and recorded a
season-high 12 saves, while also contributing a pair
of steals and an assist. Freshman
Jon Canizales (Whittier HS)
added a pair of goals and assists, while Gabayeron
also scored once and assisted on three others.
The offense was
only effective when the team went through Gabayeron
against Santa Rosa, as he scored all five of the
team's goals in the loss. Not only did Gabayeron
score all five goals, he led the team with four
steals, while Calderon (five saves) and Castro
(eight saves, three steals, assist) did their best
to keep the team in the game. Baccus rebounded in
the final game by scoring six times, with Gabayeron
checking in with three goals, two assists and two
steals in the win over Cabrillo. Calderon was also a
critical factor in the win, making six saves and
recorded five steals, while he also picked up his
second assist of the year.
|
