Coming off a stellar win against Los Angeles Harbor College on Tuesday, the Cerritos College men's soccer team continued their strong play with a 4-0 win on Friday. The Falcons (6-2-1, 2-0-0) handed visiting ECC Compton Center (5-4-0, 0-2-0) a jarring South Coast Conference defeat, as they continually attacked their opponent to the point when they finallly broke. Cerritos scored two of their goals in the final six minutes of the game with their relentless attack and will look to carry that momentum into a 2:00 p.m. conference home game against El Camino next Tuesday.

Leading 2-0 in the waning minutes of the game, Cerritos got an extra boost when freshman defender Esteban Alvarado (Bell HS) drilled a shot from 25 yards out that ricocheted off the goalpost and into the net in the 85th minute. Alvarado, took a pass from freshman midfielder Andy Ramirez (South East HS) and sent his laser of a shot that Tartar goalkeeper Fernando Valdovinos had no chance of stopping the shot.

The assault didn't stop there, as the Falcons picked up their fourth goal of the game, as freshman Cesar Armendariz (Odyssey HS) took an indirect kick that sophomore midfielder Jose Espinoza (Salesian HS) casually flipped over everyone and into the net to finish off the team's dominant win.

Before taking their sizable lead, Cerritos had to withstand a couple of offensive attacks by Compton, as freshman goalkeeper Thomas Yeandle (Orange Lutheran HS) recorded an early save that kept the game tied. Alexander Valenzuela appeared to have given the Tartars the lead, but Yeandle was able to get to the ground and make one of his four stops on the day.

Sophomore Yoni Garcia (University HS) opened the scoring in the 42nd minute, as he one-timed a pass from freshman Edward Robles (Annenberg HS), who took a lead pass from freshman Cristian Zuniga (Montebello HS) and a lead just three minutes before the end of the first half. The momentum carried over into the second half, with Alvarado stealing a clearing pass from Valdovinos (nine saves), where he saw Robles on the counter. With Valdovinos out to try and beat Robles to the ball, he arrived too late and the Falcons took a 2-0 lead, which only fuled the fire of the team in their early conference win.

Photos by Daryl Peterson