After the 2015 season the Cerritos men’s soccer team has had an impressive start to the current season earning an early record of 2-2-2.
The men began their season with a non-conference win against Citrus College.
After a 45 minute delay due to bus complications Cerritos finally made it to the field, and obtained a 7-0 over Citrus.
Team captain Austin De Medeiros said, “We started [by] getting the ball, going forward and not staying on our half too long.
“When you are constantly going at the other team you’re going to find its holes and gaps to fill,” he added.
Cerritos jumped at the opportunity to take an early lead when freshman Luis Garcia set up for a free kick, which deflected off an Owls’ defender and found its way to the back of the net.
Less then 30 seconds later sophomore Edwin Corona scored his first goal.
This was the first of three goals for Corona. He returned this season after being a red shirt player on last season’s team.
Corona said, “Well it’s good. I shouldn’t have taken a year off, things happen […] I am glad to be back.”
The men dominated on defense holding the Owls to just two shots on goal and only one on target.
Later that weekend the team traveled to Hartnell College to participate in its tournament.
The team finished the weekend with 1-1-1 in the event.
The only successful game of the tournament was against LA Mission.
The game proved to be a close call only winning by one point with a final score being 3-2.
In regards to the performance as a whole in the tournament, Corona stated that, “It was kind of harder. We couldn’t handle the pressure.”
Moving on from the performance at the Hartnell Tournament the Falcons went onto play Golden West College.
It was a close game overall with both teams being held at 0-0 until just about the end of the game.
In a last ditch effort the Rustlers were able to capitalize on a Cerritos mistake and score the only goal of the game.
“We just had a mental breakdown toward the end of the half,” Corona said.
He then repeated, “We just couldn’t handle it.”
In Tuesday’s game against Oxnard it was again an average performance with the game ending with a 2-2 tie.
Coach Benny Artiaga said “We did well, we executed the game plan [and] we played hard. It just didn’t come out with the result we would’ve like for it too.”
