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The Cerritos
College women's soccer team clinched their fourth
straight South Coast Conference championship with
their 3-0 win at Mt. San Antonio College on Tuesday
afternoon. The Falcons, ranked #1 in the country,
have one more regular season game before they start
the playoffs. Cerritos (16-0-4 overall, 9-0-2 SCC)
will host Long Beach City College at 1:00 p.m. on
Friday in hopes to maintaining their unbeaten
season. Despite their record and national ranking,
Cerritos is still second in Southern California in
the power rankings, trailing only Ventura College
(16-1-3).
Heading into the
game against the Mounties, the Falcons led LBCC by
five points in the conference standings and with the
win, their 29 conference points are enough to hold
off the Vikings (7-1-3, 24 points).
"We're happy that
we won the game and clinched the conference
championship," said Cerritos head coach
Ruben
Gonzalez, who guided his team to their
first state title in school history last year. "We
still have another big game on Friday and want to
win in order to maintain one of the top two spots
heading into the playoffs. Being in the top two
allows us to play all of our playoffs games at
home."
The Falcons
entered the game shorthanded, as sophomore
midfielder
Alyesse Orr
(St. Joseph HS) was injured during
warm-ups and missed the game. She was joined on the
sidelines by freshman forward
Liliana Leos
(Southeast HS), who was injured early in
the second half.
Despite the
missing players, Cerritos took a 1-0 two minutes
into the second half when sophomore forward
Monique
Cisneros (Mayfair HS) scored
her school-record 33rd goal of the season with an
assist from sophomore midfielder
Corina
Villegas (Perris HS). Not more
than three minutes later, it was a 2-0 advantage
when Cisneros fed freshman midfielder
Mayra
Garcia (Locke HS), who scored
her fifth goal of the year.
After the second
Falcon goal, the Mounties looked to put the pressure
on the Cerritos defense by moving up four forwards
for more offensive opportunities. Up to the task,
the Falcons tightened up on defense and freshman
goalkeeper
Tiffany
Hollis (Lakewood HS) ended up
turning away eight shots in the second half. She
shared the shutout with sophomore
Chantal
Cervero (Cerritos HS), who
made four saves in the first half.
The pressure by
the Mounties created more scoring chances for
Cerritos, who cleared the ball out of danger with
each save. They finally reached the back of the net
in extra time when Villegas scored her 13th goal on
an assist from sophomore
Elba
Menjivar (Monroe HS/Pasadena City
College).
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