Often times sports rematches have completely opposite outcomes from the first meeting. The rematch between the Golden West and Cerritos men’s soccer clubs didn’t quite go as planned for the Falcons.

The Rustlers were able to down the Falcons 2-1 Saturday, Nov. 19. The loss eliminated Cerritos from postseason play.

Head coach Benny Artiaga said, “Anytime a team beats you in the regular season you always want a chance to get some type of payback. We wanted the top seed [Rustlers] because we honestly thought we could beat them.”

The two teams first met Sept. 9 with Golden West coming away with a 1-0 final score.

Despite the first meeting, Artiaga felt his team was not caught off guard by anything the Golden West team did.

“Honestly, [the Rustlers] did exactly what we scouted them to do. Unfortunately, they got us with an early goal and that kind of put us on our heels,” he said.

In the same right, freshman midfielder/forward Luis Garcia felt the Rustlers did their own fair share of studying the Falcons.

“I believe Golden West studied us pretty well after the first game and knew where we were dangerous and managed to close us out with structuring its back line and waiting for our mistakes,” he said.

Cerritos did not score its lone goal until the 54th minute of the contest. The unassisted goal was scored by freshman Jose Ponce.

Ponce also finished as a runner-up for the defensive player of the year for the South Coast Conference South division.

“I don’t think we bit off more than we could with the [Rustlers]. We knew the team was going to come after us as badly as we wanted to [go after them]. The game was at a great intensity [level] making it hard for both teams to create opportunities.

“We played the second half on their side, so we knew it could have been anyone’s game after being down 2-0 at the end of the first half,” Garcia said.

One major point of emphasis for Cerritos, was the team was given six yellow cards; all in the first half.

However, Artiaga doesn’t feel that had a hand in the loss for the Falcons.

“Yellow cards played [no] role in the game. They were a non-factor,” he said.

Garcia felt both teams felt the pressure after being carded so many times by officials.

“It’s part of the game. When two elite teams are on the field, we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy away game; so we had to come out with everything we had. The yellow cards just added more pressure to both teams,” he said.

Golden West received four yellow cards during the game, all in the first half.

Prior to playoff play, Garcia was named the South Coast Conference South Division Offensive Player of the Year.

Ahead of the postseason, many of the players and coaches wanted the rematch with Golden West.

Now that the long-awaited rematch resulted in Cerritos being bounced from the playoffs, Artiaga hasn’t backed down from his and the team’s eagerness for the do-over.

“No, we wanted Golden West or any top seed because if you can’t beat those teams then you don’t belong in the tournament. Our boys battled and we are very proud of our team.

“We’re young and we will definitely be a force next season,” he concluded.