Cerritos College soccer one win away from advancing to tournament
NORWALK – The Cerritos College Men’s Soccer team is one win away from advancing to its eighth CCCAA State Championship tournament appearance in the last 18 years, with a 2-1 win over visiting Santa Monica in the Southern California Regional 3rd Round Tuesday (November 22).
Standing in its way is rival Mt. San Antonio College, which has won six state titles in the last 12 years. The Falcons will host No. 5 Seed Mt. SAC, which defeated El Camino, 5-3 in penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie in regulation and overtime, this Saturday (Nov. 26).
“When you’re at this level, everyone is good,” Cerritos College coach Benny Artiaga said. “It was a hard-grinding win.”
To get to the 3rd round, the Falcons defeated Bakersfield, 2-0, Saturday (Nov. 19) in the 2nd Round to open the playoffs.
Cerritos, which is ranked No. 1 in the CCCSIA poll coming into the playoffs and seeded No. 1, improved to 20-0-2 with the two playoff wins this week.
Cerritos, under Artiaga, has won previous state titles in 2006, ’08, ’14 and ’18.
Beginning in 2004, the Falcons have been in the playoffs every year but 2015.
As for the clash against the Mounties, this will be the third time the two teams will face each other this season. “We like our chances at home,” Artiaga added.
Cerritos defeated Mt. SAC, 2-1, in the regular season in South Coast Conference action and again in the SCC Tournament Championship game, 3-2.
“Two reasons,” explained Artiaga, of the game. “We are playing our rival and it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season.”
The Falcons faced the same scenario in last year’s playoffs, as they faced El Camino for the third time in the season in the So Cal’s.
CCCAA 2nd Round
Cerritos 2, Bakersfield 0
Cerritos, which received a first-round bye, faced the Renegades for the second time this season. The first meeting resulted in a 0-0 tie on a rain-filled day at Cerritos.
“We actually nicknamed this the “flu game“, Cerritos coach Benny Artiaga said. “We didn’t train at least three days out of the week. We had everyone sick and I told the boys ‘you got to get up and feed your family and go to work if you are an adult. One of the first teaching tools is you got to come to work (play the game) today. Whether you are sick or hurt or injured, you got to come to work today.
“This is the kind of game that teaches you about adversity, grit and finding deep down what you’re made out of.”
Cerritos, which controlled most of the first half, got on the scoreboard in the 15th minute on a goal from sophomore midfielder Raul Ortiz, as he took a pass from sophomore forward Chris Corona.
“In this game, it is imperative that we score that early goal,” Artiaga said. “When we scored that early, they can no longer dictate play.
“You could just work the ball around and keep control and it’s just strategic on our part. We just keep the ball moving around back. To be honest with you, I couldn’t be prouder. Our boys did awesome.”
The second goal came 10 minutes into the second half in the 55th minute by sophomore midfielder Uriel Sanchez. He took a pass from freshman midfielder Kobe Chavez, dribbled the ball around two defenders and scored for the 2-0 lead.
“From the first game that we played against them, we played way better and we put them away early,” Cerritos sophomore center back Jaret Rocha said. “It was my first game back after my injury (collar bone). I felt a little slow in the beginning, but it started getting better. I missed six or seven games.
“It feels better now, but my conditioning was a bit off, but I’ll be back.”
Rocha talked about the post season and how the level of play goes up.
“These types of games are never easy,” he said. “Playoff games are always hard. But, once we get our rhythm going, we keep going.”
Freshman keeper Steven Ruiz won his 13th game of the season and had two saves.
“The game went exactly the way we wanted it,” sophomore midfielder Antonio Negrete said. “We were touching around them and put in two goals. We had a pretty good game.
“The last game (0-0 tie in Sept.) we were having trouble putting it away. They were defending a lot and we just had trouble putting them in.
“The key to (Saturday’s) game was to spread them out and penetrate in and get a goal. “That they will open up and try to attack us and they won’t be able to defend us. They are going to have to chase the game.
“We just had to put one in, and we knew it would be our game after that.”
CCCAA 3rd Round
Cerritos 2, Santa Monica 1
“It’s a weight off our shoulders,” said Artiaga, of the game. This was not going to be an easy game,” added Artiaga.
“Getting that early goal set the tone of the game,” Artiaga added.
The Falcons again scored the first goal and it was in the first 15 minutes by sophomore forward Enrique Penate, as he headed the ball into the net.
Cerritos took the lone one-goal lead into half and didn’t score until after Santa Monica tied the game, 1-1, in the 76th minute by Alexander Lalor.
The Falcons would respond just five minutes later with a go-ahead goal by Negrete (Diego Alvarado), his 11th of the season.
“The boys dug down deep,” Artiaga said. “Kobe took a shot and ricocheted off a player and Tony (Antonio) knocked it in.”
Santa Monica, which ends its season at 15-4-5, defeated Norco, 1-0 in the second round.