Cerritos College is 2-0 after winning their second game of the season against Citrus College.
After a 7-0 win in their season opening game, Cerritos managed to pull off a 4-0 win on Tuesday.
Despite being on a winning streak with zero goals conceded, Head Coach Benny Artiaga believed it wasn’t one of their sharpest games.
Artiaga continued on by saying, “It kind of says a lot to our talent level on a day when we’re not sharp, [we] still win 4-0.”
He believes the team’s form can still improve and expects his sophomores to play within the concept he has for them this season. “It’s a little disappointing our sophomores didn’t do a good enough job of playing in their shape.”
Despite the outcome, things could have gone differently for Cerritos, since the first few minutes of the game were dominated by Citrus College.
The Falcons’ got a wake-up call when Patrick Luevano came inside the box and took a shot that was deflected by the left post.
Citrus College went on only having one more shot on goal for the remainder of the first half.
From then on, Cerritos got into a rhythm and began to control the game.
Guy Carven played a crucial role in this by giving Cerritos equilibrium in the midfield by recuperating lost balls and facilitating shots by his teammates.
Unfortunately, Carven had to come out due to injury but was able to recover and come back later in the game.
Cerritos began creating opportunities playing their wings and penetrated the Citrus defense.
The pressure Cerritos was placing on Citrus College came to fruition when the Falcons scored in minute 15 after a set piece covered by captain Luis Garcia and powerful header by Esteban Camacho.
Garcia has had a strong first two games with two goals and one assist the last game and one assist this game.
“It actually feels really good just helping out my team. If I can’t score making sure they score,” he said.
Cerritos had a couple more chances to increase the lead in the first half but were inconsistent.
However, the second half was completely dominated by Cerritos College.
It did not take long for Cerritos to change the scoreboard to a 2-0 lead. After a bad attempt from the Citrus defense to clear the ball from their box, Carlos Payeras was able to strike the ball into the net.
Payeras wasn’t done scoring yet. Five minutes later, he was able to secure another goal.
For Payeras, these goals meant a lot to him, “They’re my first two college goals. Those are always hard to get out. Now that I got them out of the way, I feel like I could move forward and continue helping the team get better.”
Cerritos closed the game with a late fourth goal by Oscar Canela, who netted the ball with a clean left foot finish.
The Falcons’ next game will be against Hartnell where they hope to continue their winning streak to 3-0.
