The Cerritos Men’s Soccer team obtained their 13th win of the season against conference rival Los Angeles Harbor College with 6-1 on Oct. 26.
The Falcons goal-scorers were freshmen forward No. 9 Kevin Diaz, forward No. 26 Bryan Villalobos and sophomore midfielder No. 8 Oscar Penate.
Diaz scored in the 32nd, 67th and 78th minute of the game with Villalobos scoring in the 22nd and 30th minute and Penate scoring in the 17th minute, respectively. Penate earned the goal after a poor clearance from L.A. Harbor defense.
Forward Diaz has 13 goals this campaign, forward Villalobos has nine goals and midfielder Penate scored his third goal of the season in the game.
Sophomore midfielders No. 7 Alberto Carrillo and No. 10 Erick Gallinar made two assists each. Both Carrillo and Gallinar assisted in the second goal scored by forward Villalobos. Midfielder Penate also made an assist for the third goal.
The No. 1 ranked Falcons played their fifth South Coast Conference match after playing four games against crossover teams.
Cerritos had ball possession during the first half and took care of L.A. Harbor with a 4-0 lead thanks to their offensive players in the first 15 to 30 minutes.
Cerritos and L.A. Harbor only had 11 fouls combined in the 90 minutes. Only two yellow cards were issued by the referee, freshman midfielder No. 17 Bryan Ortega was cautioned in the 61st minute for Cerritos.
The Falcons, for a third consecutive game, were awarded a penalty kick which forward Diaz scored.
Cerritos had to play the last 20 minutes of the second half without their team captain sophomore midfielder No. 6 Esteban Camacho; he was replaced by freshman defender No. 18 Jorge Cardona.
Head Coach Benjamin Artiaga stated, “Another positive start… great first half. No team can defend well against us if we play the ball well.”
When asked about the match against conference rival Compton, Artiaga said, “Our expectation is not to end up getting caught playing bad soccer.”
Freshman defender No. 20 Eugene Martinez when asked on the defensive performance said, “It was a mishap, one small error and we paid the consequences.”
Martinez stated, “Offense was good…some games ended with one or two goals. Villalobos and Diaz are scoring when they have to.”
Freshman midfielder No. 24 Carlos Perez said of the team’s performance, “We put them [L.A. Harbor] away in the first half. We gave them life in the second half and we let the ball bounce for them to score.”
Penate agreed with Perez saying, “I felt that the first half we took care of business, however in the second half we did not touch the ball, we got our goals to get the 6-1 win.”
Cerritos Men’s Soccer will play against conference rival Compton away on Oct. 30 and will play their final conference crossover match against Rio Hondo at home on Nov. 2.
Check out the more info on the game here.
