Cerritos College men’s soccer team’s fantastic season came to an end after losing in semifinals against Taft College.
The Falcons had a great undefeated season scoring a total of 58 goals throughout the season and having a huge run of nine shutout games.
The team ended the season being ranked #1 in the nation by the United Soccer Coaches among Division III (non-scholarship) schools, while they are also ranked No. 1 in the state and Southern California.
Cerritos was unable to capitalize a victory against Taft College as they had beaten their semifinals rivals 1-0 during the regular season.
The absence of Luis Garcia was noticeable during their match against Taft as the playmaker had 16 goals and seven assists throughout the whole season.
Garcia was the very same player who gave Cerritos their 1-0 win against Taft College. With the presence of Garcia on the pitch, the game could have had a different outcome
Cerritos was a really well structured team from defense, to midfield, to offense having a great backbone that included Jordan Aldama, Eric Payeras, Guy Carven and Luis Garcia.
Falcons always went forward when playing their game and never speculated waiting to see what the other team had to offer.
No matter who it was that they were facing, Falcons always proposed an attacking style of soccer.
The only time the team had difficulty was when opponents decided to park the bus and try to score on a counter attack.
For some teams, the counter attack option did work but the resilience of the Falcons is what led the Falcons to come back and draw games or win the games with a clear advantage and dominance.
In every game the team was compact and well composed, making it the reason for no team being able to score more than one goal against Cerritos throughout the whole season.
If Cerritos had any trouble it was on the offensive end of the field.
At times it was hard for the team to penetrate the other team’s defense to create a chance for a goal.
They also had problems being efficient.
In many of the Falcons’ games, the opponent team was able to get away with a defeat of one or two goal differences when it should have been more.
The downfall of this team was the penalties.
No team beat Cerritos within the 90 minutes of regular time but Taft managed to beat the Falcons 4-1 in penalty kicks.
Falcons had also struggled against Golden West in the penalty shootouts having multiple chances to end the game in sudden death but did not complete.
Fortunately for Cerritos, Golden West never took advantage of their opportunities which led to Cerritos College’s Jose Ponce to close that game out.
For next season, penalties is what Cerritos should practice more on in order for them to not have difficulties when they have to resolve a game in penalty shootouts.
Despite not winning state, Cerritos should be proud of the season that they had they left everything on the pitch and never held back. The Falcons should look forward to next season and have the same goals and aspirations of winning it all.
