Cerritos’ soccer team gets another huge victory against the defensive-minded Bakersfield 2-0 as they fought adversities throughout every step.
“We actually nicknamed this game, ‘the Flu game,’” Head Coach Benny Artiaga said, “We didn’t train three days out of the week. Every single one of our players caught the flu [only 1-2 players didn’t get the flu].’”
The first half had the Falcons pushing the pace with seven shots just in that half but it looked like Bakersfield was just in the right positions on defense.
Sophomore Raul Ortiz (No. 6), Midfielder, finally got the Falcons on the board as he scored after two shots were initially blocked away, as the score is 1-0 Cerritos.
Ortiz’s goal was the only goal that both teams scored in the first half as they struggle to get the ball in the net.
The refs held their cards as they didn’t call many yellow cards this game, only calling two the whole game and allowing both teams to be physical and aggressive.
With the Falcons putting pressure on Bakersfield’s offense, Bakersfield didn’t shoot a single shot on goal in the first half, which has been a problem for them the whole game.
The second half had the Falcons putting the same amount of pressure on Bakersfield, having seven shots again.
No. 11 Uriel Sanchez, Sophomore, Midfielder, passed through two defenders and scored his fourth goal of the season, giving Cerritos a comfortable 2-0 lead in the 54th minute.
Bakersfield only had five shots in the second half, even with them trailing for the whole game, and Cerritos took that time to waste the time in the end and run with the 2-0 victory.
Head coach Artiaga expanded more about the ‘Flu game,’ “This is the kind of game that teaches you about adversity, grit, finding deep down what you’re made out of.”
“I’m very proud of the boys,” he added, “I did not think we were going to be ready to play this game […] they came out [and] executed.”
“This team [Bakersfield] held us to zero last time so it’s very imperative we scored that early goal,” Artiaga said.
“We told them to be patient […] and make sure they understand that we now no longer have to go forward,” coach Artiaga said about the team’s approach.
“Once we got our goal, we didn’t have to go forward, we can take control the game [pace and tempo].”
“The only thing we need to do is get healthy,” he said about the next round, “get this flu out of this system, take the extra two days of rest, […] for us to not go to the State Finals, someone has to here and beat us.”
Sophomore Chris Corona (No. 21), Forward, said the game was excellent, “I would say we did good.”
“We found our pockets, […] we had to sit back so they could press and once we found those gaps and put the ball behind the space and we did our thing.”
“Since we all trust each other and we all have a deep squad, we know that if one of us isn’t playing our best, we have someone right behind us to step up and do the job,” Corona said.
The Sophomore Forward said that the team just needs to get healthy and keep training hard, “We can’t let go of the gas, we need to keep going at it. The job is not finished.”
Freshman Diego Alvarado (No. 2), Center back, felt great about the team’s performance, closing the game with the second-half score and how the team controlled the tempo.
Alvarado said doing the things that they’ve been doing the whole season, keeping the same mentality and the same focus.
The Falcons have a 17-game win streak and look to keep that going when they play Santa Monica at home on Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. in the third round of the regional playoffs.
