Taking on El Camino College in the third place game of the South Coast Conference Tournament, the Cerritos College men's water polo team posted a 16-8 win on Saturday. The Falcons (19-13) will now find out on Sunday where they are seeded for the Southern California Regional Playoffs, which will take place at Riverside City College next weekend.
After a slow first quarter for Cerritos, where they were tied, 3-3 with the Warriors (20-10), the team started to get their whole game together. Goals by Kevin Elizarraraz (Buena Park HS), John Gomez (La Serna HS) and Mateo Fernandez (St. John Bosco HS) to start the second quarter helped the Falcons open up a 6-3 lead. El Camino picked up a goal, which was responded by a power play goal from Elizarraraz, one of four man advantage goals for Cerritos.
Cerritos started scoring goal in bunches, which helped them pull away for the win. Rodrigo Baca (Kennedy HS), Mario Vanzillotta (Colegio Palas, Brazil) and Brian Luque-Gutierrez (Salazar y Herrera, Colombia) scored goals to close out the third quarter, which saw the Falcons open a 12-5 lead. The Falcons capped off the game by outscoring the Warriors, 4-3 in the fourth quarter.
Elizarraraz led the team with five goals, while Fernandez, Vanzillotta and Baca each scored twice, with the defense getting a trio of steals from Baca and Gomez.
Photos by Daryl Peterson
