Last year, the Cerritos College men's soccer team thought they had hat it took to make a run at the state championship. But, in the 2nd Round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs, visiting Golden West College put an end to that dream. With their first chance to face the Rustlers since that heartbreaking 1-0 loss last year, the Falcons were able to avenge that loss with a 2-0 non-conference victory in their home opener on Thursday. The win improved the team's record to 4-1-0, while Golden West dropped to 0-1-0. The two teams will meet again in Huntington Beach for a 4:00 p.m. game next Friday.

It didn't take long for Cerritos to take an early lead, and evetually took their 2-0 lead less that 10 minutes into the game. With pressure from the outset of the game, freshman defender Carlos Torres (Lee Ware HS) drilled a hard line drive into the upper corner of the net past a stunned Antonio Flores just 2:31 into the contest with sophomore Gerardo Soto (Salesian HS) earning the assist. Not satisfied with the early 1-0 advantage, freshman forward Jose Rivera (Torrance HS) delivered the ball into the same spot of the net on just as hard a shot as the first goal. Sophomore midfielder Oscar Enriquez (Cabrillo HS) was credited with the assist.

Freshmen goalkeeping duo Benito Gonzalez (Long Beach Wilson HS) and Brett Hughes (Long Beach Millikan HS) combined for the shutout win, as the two made a combined six saves.

With little offensive pressure coming from the Rustlers, Cerritos outshot their opponent 21-13 with 14 of those shots on goal toward both Flores and second half goalkeeper Diego Chacon, who posted seven saves.

Cerritos continued the pressure in the second half, with freshman Ludwing Vargas (Salesian HS) getting turned away on a nice diving save by Flores, while freshman Mario Guerrero (University HS) was also thwarted in his scoring attempt in the 63rd minute.