With a chance to move into one of the top two spots in the Southern California power rankings, the Cerritos College men's soccer team handed visiting Pasadena City College a 5-0 beating on Tuesday. Entering the game, the Falcons (12-5-3, 8-4-1) were in third place in both the power rankings and in the tough South Coast Conference. The win, coupled with a win over conference-leading, and #2 power ranking Mt. San Antonio College on Friday, could propel Cerritos into one of the top two spots and guarantee them home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Mt. SAC is hosting fourth place Los Angeles Harbor College and will host the Falcons at 5:00 p.m on Friday in their final conference match.

In their dominant win over the visiting Lancers (5-9-6, 5-3-5), who handed Cerritos a 2-1 loss in their first meeting, the team came out from the outset of the game and utilized their maximum-sized field to stretch their opponent in every way possible. The Falcons used their overall team speed to take the ball around the edge and then followed that with spot-on passing that led to all five of their goals.

Only eight minutes into the game, sophomore Gerardo Soto (Salesian HS) dribbled through the defense to get in deep and sent a perfect pass to freshman Jose Espinoza (Salesian HS) for a one-time shot past goalkeeper Marino Bianchi and into an open net. Bianchi, who posted six saves on the day, had no chance on a laser shot from 35 yards out by sophomore Dominic Escobar (Roosevelt HS) for a 2-0 lead in the 17th minute.

The aggressive play by Cerritos not only was rewarded by two penalty kick goals, it resulted in two Pasadena City players receiving red cards and being forced to play two men short for the majority of the second half. Sophomore Gabriel Rivera (California HS) scored on a penalty kick after Elio Anguiano was called for a foul in the penalty box, while Bianchi was awarded a yellow card in the 70th minute when he brought down Christian Zepeda (Columbus HS) with a hard tackle in the box. Freshman Jose Rivera (Torrance HS) stepped in and scored on the penalty kick.

The scoring closed out in the 80th minute when freshman Rudy Montoya (Bell HS) sent a corner kick into a group of players, where Zepeda was able to get enough on his shot to score. Earlier in the game, Cerritos had several other chances to score, with sophomore Carlos Escobar (Roosevelt HS) getting the best chance when his shot hit the goalpost.

Falcon goalie Benito Gonzalez (Long Beach Wilson HS) recorded his second straight shutout and fourth in the last five games. He made four saves on the day.

Photo by Daryl Peterson