On Tuesday, the Cerritos College men's soccer team scored a season-high five goals in a 5-1 South Coast Conference win against visiting East Los Angeles College. The two were the final unbeaten teams in the conference coming into the day and the Falcons (4-5-3, 4-0-1) maintained sole possession of the conference lead with the victory. On Friday, the team will travel to El Camino College for a 2:00 p.m. conference match.

It didn't take long for Cerritos to get on the board against the Huskies (5-2-5, 2-1-2) and it started with a long ball from freshman Mark Cruz (El Toro HS) in the fifth minute. His ball was sent to the opposite side of the field, where freshman Nathan Martin (Long Beach Millikan HS) scrambled with an East LA defender and goalkeeper Alexis Castellanos. Martin came away with the ball and sent a crossing pass over the head of the two players to freshman Juan Orozco (Sierra HS), who chipped the ball into the empty net.

Continuing his exceptional play, Orozco blasted a laser beam of a shot from 35 yards out that scored into the far right side of the net. Cruz saw Orozco lining up for a shot and fed him a perfect pass on the ground, which made the finish more impressive. The Huskies cut the Falcon lead in half in the 40th minute when Carlos Salinas worked past the defense and scored on sophomore goalkeeper Jaime Sanchez (Aspire Pacific Academy HS).

East LA was able to put a great deal of pressure on the Cerritos defense, but were turned away three times by the goal post. In the 18th minute, Javier Gonzalez drilled a shot off the cross bar and the rebound shot by Albert Chamagua deflected wide off the goal post. Salines missed out on scoring his second goal of the game when he sent a shot off the crossbar.

Cerritos put the game out of reach with a pair of goals four minutes apart in the second half. In the 59th minute, Martin sent a pass to the corner of the box, where sophomore Christian Carrillo (Katella HS) was there to gather a loose ball and drilled a shot past backup goalkeeper Brian Paredes. It was a set piece that put the team on top, 4-1 in the 63rd minute when freshman Michael Licon (Fullerton HS) lofted a corner kick that Ulysses Rosales controlled before the bounce and misdirected the ball into the goal.

The final goal of the game came in the 73rd minute when freshman Ricardo Colin (Jefferson HS) beat Paredes to a loose ball outside the 18-yard box and was all alone to chip the ball into an empty net.

Photos by Daryl Peterson