With only one game left to play before the South Coast Conference Tournament the Falcons have an overall record of 23-4 and a conference record of 4-1.

The team’s only conference loss came at the hands of Long Beach City College, who beat the Falcons at home by a score of 11-9 on Wednesday, Oct.19.

The game against the Vikings came one week after the Falcons’ 19-18 win over the Mt. San Antonio Mounties, a game that afterwards head coach Joe Abing was concerned with his team’s defense.

Although Long Beach was able to beat Cerritos, Abing saw progress.

“I think we made strides collectively as a team and also different things individually that needed to be done,” he said.

More specifically coach mentioned, “We’ve improved a lot when transitioning from one style of defense to another instead of getting stuck in between.”

After a tough loss like the one it suffered at the hands of Long Beach, Abing continues to attempt to make his team better and keep them grounded.

Following the loss freshman goalie Matthew Contreras said coach Abing had a simple message for the team.

“We’re not unstoppable, we’re not unbeatable,” Contreras said.

Abing has continued to instill this message in his team from day one.

The weekend following the match against Long Beach, Cerritos College participated in the Golden West Tournament.

On the first day of competition the Falcons competed against two good teams, Los Angeles Valley and Riverside.

Against LA Valley the Falcons were able to jump out ahead early and hold the lead throughout the game, which ended in a 11-5 score.

This marked the third time Cerritos has played LA Valley this season, coming out victorious on all three occasions.

The next game was against Riverside, who was able to take advantage of the Falcons lackluster offense and go on to win the game by a score line of 10-9.

The second and final day of the tournament as planned for the Falcons, Cerritos was able to beat West Valley by a score of 12-6, and also were able to come away with a highly contested victory against Cuesta 12-10.

Against Cuesta College, Contreras has what Abing called, “His best game of the season.”

Contreras also felt that his performance was a special and much needed one.

He continued to say, “My confidence was shaken a little for the past few games, but the last few games I played pretty well, and this game boosted my confidence even more, I’m feeling a lot better.”

Every team Cerritos played at the Golden West tournament is among the top team in its respective conference.

Abing saw this as a good opportunity to see what his team was made of.

“Every team that was here is one of the Top-10 teams in the state, all the games were competitive and prepared us for the conference championship coming up in a couple of weeks,” he said.

After the team’s final conference game against Los Angeles Trade Tech, the team will have about a week in a half before the South Coast Conference Tournament begins Nov. 4.

Abing’s focus for the team during that time will on its game and fitness.

He said, “Next week we’re going to spend a lot of time on conditioning to be in the best shape possible for the conference tournament.”

He also cited basic fundamentals as another area that the team will work on before the end of the season.

Freshman Contreras feels the team needs to continue to work hard to reach its potential.

“Chemistry,” Contreras said. “I think we need a little more chemistry, we’re doing good but we need to be able to completely trust each other.”