After going two and a half weeks without a win, the Cerritos College men's soccer team earned a crucial 2-0 victory over visiting El Camino College in a South Coast Conference match on Friday. The Falcons (9-5-3, 5-4-1), who slipped all the way down to fourth place in the conference, now have 16 points, while the Warriors (7-6-4, 5-3-2), who own two wins over first place Mt. San Antonio College, have 17 points. There are four games left in the regular season and Cerritos will now travel to East Los Angeles College for a 4:00 p.m. game next Tuesday.

Playing without their starting goalie, the Falcons turned to freshman Christian Zepeda (Columbus HS), who is a defender, and put him in goal. He saw his first action in the team's scoreless tie against ECC Compton Center on Tuesday when freshman Benito Gonzalez (Long Beach Wilson HS) received his second yellow card.

Zepeda did a masterful job in net and came up with a couple of crucial saves along the way. His powerful leg also helped the Falcons score their second goal of the game, as his field-long clearing kick was stolen by freshman Nicholas Escalante (California HS), and he was able to score on Warrior goalie Nolan Dean in the 62nd minute.

Right before halftime, Zepeda made a nice save on a hard shot to the side of the net and in the second half he charged out of the net to beat a charging Danny Muro to the ball in the 54th minute. His save on Jess Chamberlain's shot off a corner kick in the 57th minute was his best of the day.

Offensively, Cerritos spent the majority of the first half looking to feed the ball to sophomore Gerardo Soto (Salesian HS), who spent the day twisting and turning around the El Camino defense, while sophomore Oscar Enriquez (Cabrillo HS) was able to maintain control of the mid-field and helped start offensive rushes.

The Falcons got on the scoreboard in the 23rd minute when Enriquez fed sophomore Dominic Escobar (Roosevelt HS) deep in the box, where he pushed the ball to freshman Jose Espinoza (Salesian HS) and he was able to chip the ball into the net. Cerritos maintained the tempo of the game and limited El Camino to only six shots, with Zepeda being asked to make three saves.

Photo by Daryl Peterson