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When the Cerritos
College women's soccer team took their first cross
country trip to play a Division I community college
school, the last thing they expected to see was someone
from their own area in the opposing team's uniform. The
Falcons, who traveled to the University of West Florida
to play two nationally ranked Division I (scholarship)
programs, put on a great show for those who had never
seen Cerritos in action. In their first game against
Catonsville (MD) College, ranked #7 in the country, the
Falcons surrendered a 2-1 score. However, they came
storming back the next day to pound #3-ranked Polk
County (FL) College, 4-1. In their last four games,
Cerritos (7-1-1) had gone 3-1-0 against four nationally
ranked teams, and have catapulted themselves to a
#7-ranking in Division III, which consists of school
that do not offer scholarships.
The team returns to action on Wednesday, when they host
San Bernardino Valley College at 4:00 p.m. in a
non-conference game.
In the loss to
Catonsville, former Long Beach City College player
Shameka Gordon accounted for both goals, as the Falcons
made two costly defensive errors in the first half. She
struck in the eighth and 29th minutes of the game, but
the Cardinals didn't provide much of a scoring threat
from that point forward. The Falcons, who recorded 19
shots on the day to just nine for Catonsville, got back
into the game in the 66th minute. Freshman
Samantha
Ramirez (California HS) sent a pass into the box
for freshman
Desiree
Cardenas (West Covina HS), who was pulled down.
Freshman
Corina Villegas (Perris HS) stepped on and
drilled the penalty kick into the net for the team's
lone goal.
Stung by the loss,
Cerritos came back the next day and went to work on Polk
College. Putting pressure on their defense from the
outset, the Falcons struck first in the 22nd minute, as
Ramirez won the ball and passed it to freshman
Monique
Cisneros (Mayfair HS), who calmly scored passed
the goalkeeper. Cerritos took that lead into the half,
but knew they needed to put at least one more on the
board against the #3-ranked team in the country. In the
49th minute, Polk won the ball at midfield and sent a
ball past the Falcon defense and scored on freshman
goalkeeper
Chantal
Cervero (Cerritos HS) to tie the game at 1-1.
Not to be outdone, the Falcons struck back two minutes
later when freshman Susana Mendoza sent a long pass from
the right sideline to Cisneros, who headed the ball in
for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
The game got very
physical, so each possession became more and more
important. The Falcons, who had the ball for the
majority of the game, continued their onslaught, as
Cardenas put the ball into the 18-yard box for Villegas,
who chested the ball, split two defenders and drilled
the ball into the far post for a spectacular goal.
Cerritos, who had 21 shots on goal, closed out the
scoring in the 82nd minute when Villegas sent a long
ball behind the defenders to Cisneros, who closed out
the hat
trick when she scored. |
