W. Soccer: Third straight shutout turned in by Falcons

Top-ranked Falcons post 6-0 win over West Valley
Top-ranked Falcons post 6-0 win over West Valley

For the third game in a row, the Cerritos College women's soccer team turned in a shutout, as they recorded a 6-0 win on Wednesday against West Valley College. Playing without sophomore goalie Ruby Nichols (Bishop Amat HS), who missed the game due to an injury, the Falcon defense limited the Vikings (0-3-1) to just one shot on goal, while Cerritos (5-0-0) scored on six of their 10 shots on goal. The team will continue north and face Clark (WA) Community College in Vancouver, WA at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

The Falcons scored five of their six goals in the second half, with three of them coming in a three-minute period early in the second half. In the 48th minute, sophomore Amber Whitmore (Los Alamitos HS), working from left to right, crossed a ball through the goal mouth to freshman Itzel Ballesteros (Maywood Academy HS), who scored into the opposite side of the net.

Just two minutes later, freshman Maria Hernandez (Sierra Vista HS) found sophomore Natalie de Leon (St. Joseph HS) 30 yards outside the box. Making moves to get around a pair of West Valley defenders, de Leon fired off a shot into the lower left corner to give the Falcons a 3-0 lead. A little over a minute later, Whitmore volleyed the ball into the net on a nice feeding pass from sophomore Dana Jacobs (Yorba Linda HS/San Francisco State University).

Sophomore Cheyenne De Los Reyes (Santa Monica HS/Santa Monica College), who got the team on the board in the 28th minute, picked up her second of the game in the 65th minute. Hernandez collected her second assist of the game when she saw De Los Reyes running behind the defenders and went in alone for a breakaway goal. The scoring concluded in the 88th minute with freshman Gissell Gutierrez (Dominguez HS) doing most of the fancy footwork. She dribbled through three players before sending the ball to Ballesteros at the PK spot and she finished the play.

Freshman goalie Arianna Armijo (North Torrance HS), making her second appearance and first start of the season, was the beneficiary of solid defense and was asked to make just one save in collecting her first collegiate shutout.

Photos by Ana Ramirez