In what is usually one of their more emotionally charged games each season, the Cerritos College men's soccer team opened South Coast Conference play with a 4-2 road win against Los Angeles Harbor College. The Falcons (5-2-1) know that in order for them to contend for the conference title, beating both the Seahawks and Mt. San Antonio College are their biggest games of the season. The team will now host ECC Compton Center at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

Cerritos opened up a 3-0 lead over LA Harbor (3-3-0, 0-1-0) before a late rally closed their lead to 3-2 with 15 minutes remaining. But they picked up an insurance goal when freshman Gilbert Rocha (Animo HS) fed the ball to sophomore Thiago Lusardi (Centro Educational Ramos HS, Brazil), who slotted the ball to sophomore Yoni Garcia (University HS), who drew a foul in the box. Lusardi, who scored the game's first goal, drilled home the penalty kick for the final tally of the contest.

"This was an all-around great effort by the team," said head coach Benny Artiaga. "We had a few minutes of mental lapses, but we played 80 strong minutes on both sides of the field."

By Artiaga's standards, the first goal by Lusardi is potentially the most spectacular goal ever made by a Cerritos player. On the play, freshman Edward Robles (Annenberg HS) sent him a pass from about 25 yards from the goal. Lusardi popped the ball up to himself, and before it hit the ground, volleyed it over the goalkeeper's head and into the net.

"That goal was truly a thing of beauty," added Artiaga. "You don't see those very often. But I'm happy because winning games on the road in conference is not an easy task. I'm very happy with our effort."

Cerritos took a 2-0 lead early in the second half when sophomore Gustavo Reyes (Long Beach Wilson HS) stole the ball in the back and played it to sophomore Edward Corona (Cathedral HS), who chipped the ball past the keeper. It became 3-0 when Corona stole the ball from a defender and quickly struck the ball past the keeper and into the net.

The Seahawks got on the scoreboard on an unusual circumstance. While the linesman was allowing a Cerritos substitution, the center official overruled the call, which put the team at a defensive disadvantage. LA Harbor got a quick start on the play and capitalized when they scored on freshman goalkeeper Thomas Yeandle (Orange Lutheran HS). Not long after that, they struck again to get to within 3-2 before the final penalty kick secured the win.