Entering their South Coast Conference game against visiting El Camino College, the Cerritos College men's soccer team was four points out of first place. The Falcons (8-2-4, 3-1-3) recorded a 1-1 tie on Tuesday with the first place Warriors (7-1-5, 5-1-1) and continue to be back by four points at the end of the first round of conference play. The team will start the second round of conference action on Friday when they travel to East Los Angeles for a 4:00 p.m. contest.

The game on Tuesday was physical, but not without its scoring chances. In the first half, the Falcons saw sophomore Ricardo Covarrubias (Elizabeth Learning Center HS) hit the crossbar on a free kick, with El Camino getting a couple of strong looks from Daniel Muro and Garrett Bucheli.

The Warriors got on the board in the 60th minute off a corner kick. Victor Guerrero sent the ball into the goal mouth, where Emanuel Corona was there to drive the ball past sophomore goalkepper Ivan Del Campo (Granada Hills Kennedy HS) and into the net. However, just 10 minutes later, freshman Steve Martinez (Salesian HS) lined up for a free kick from about 30 yards out. The left-footed midfielder laced a shot over the outstretched hands of Jose Sanchez and under the crossbar for the equalizer.

The play opened up once each team got on the board and the pace picked up dramatically. With both teams looking for the potential go-ahead goal, freshman Jose Mora (Norwalk HS) had an open shot in front of the net, but Sanchez came up with the save. In the case of Muro, he launched his shot at the open net well over the crossbar with three minutes left in the game. Neither team would get a solid scoring chance the rest of the way.

Photos by Daryl Peterson