On Wednesday, the Cerritos College men's water polo team recorded a 15-5 South Coast Conference win over host Chaffey College. The victory improved the team's record to 10-3 overall, while they are now 3-0 in conference play. The Falcons will spend this weekend competing in the Riverside City Tournament and will play a total of four games.
In the victory over the Panthers (10-6, 1-1), Cerritos turned a slow start into a 6-1 lead at intermission. The Falcon defense did a great job of shutting down Chaffey, with sophomore Arturo Ortuno (Universidad la Salle, Mexico) scoring all three of his goals in the second period, when the team out-scored the Panthers, 5-1.
A physical game that saw 18 exclusions and a pair of penalties, Cerritos continued to pull away offensively, and saw their lead swell to 11-3 after three periods. In addition to Ortuno's three goals, he also accounted for three steals and drew three ejections with his presence in front of the Chaffey goal.
Freshman Kevin Elizarraraz (Buena Park HS) scored all five of his goals in the second half to lead the Falcons on the scoring side, while he also assisted on three others, with the trio of Raul Muniz (Colbach, Mexico), Nik Klimpfinger (Los Alamitos HS) and Mateo Fernandez (St. John Bosco HS) all scoring twice in the game. As a team, Cerritos recorded 15 steals, with four players posting two each, including freshman goalkeeper Zachary Jenkins (La Serna HS), who played the first half and finished with six steals.