The Cerritos Falcons men’s soccer team lost to the LACC Cubs in a heartbreak loss to end their hopes of winning their third straight title.
The Falcons were the third seed while LACC was ranked sixth this game seemed like a favorable matchup for Cerritos.
“The saddest thing is that this team wasn’t dangerous, they weren’t even putting us in duress,” said Coach Artiaga after the tough loss.
The game started off promising for the Falcons as they went on a took an early 1-0 lead in the first 5 minutes of the game after a goal was scored by Mark Cristino.
Cerritos would add to that lead after Diego Alvarado scored a goal giving the Falcons an early 2-0 lead halfway through the first half of the game, and this was the final goal Cerritos.
But the Falcons made the crucial mistake of letting LACC score right before the half ended giving them some kind of momentum going into the second half that the team desperately needed.
In the second half, the Falcons had no offense going for them and allowed LACC to come into this game after they scored to tie the game 2-2.
“They scored from two set pieces, throwing them in the box and the most un soccer thing you could think of, it’s not even soccer it’s like kickball, it’s like kick the ball in the box and see what happens,” said Artiaga.
The Falcons had possession most of the time throughout the second half but seemed afraid to take a shot attempt.
Many times in the second half when opportunities came their way they decided to play it safe and pass on those attempts.
“The sad part we didn’t have the capacity to adapt, the fact that we had the ball for most of the whole game, the fact that we were creating and getting into the box,” said Artiaga.
This game came down to penalty kicks where LACC took an early 2-0 lead but then Cerritos would make two huge stops and capitalized on those stops and tied it 2-2.
LACC would finally hit the game-winning penalty kick and won the game eliminating the Falcons from the South Coast tournament.
After the loss, the team looked defeated, and rightfully so, a promising season ends with a gut-wrenching loss.
The Falcons will play Rio Hondo next in a game for 5th place not the goal but you take what you can get.
