Down to their final two games of the season, the Cerritos College men's soccer team received an outstanding performance for a player making just their second start. Freshman goalkeeper Eduardo Valdovinos (Long Beach Millikan HS) posted seven saves, as the fifth place Falcons (5-10-4, 5-5-2) played to a 0-0 draw with visiting sixth place El Camino College in a South Coast Conference game on Tuesday. The team will host El Camino-Compton Center at 3:00 p.m. on Friday in their final home game.

Valdovinos, who had just 207 minutes of action prior to the game, started his only other game against Oxnard, a 3-3 tie in the second contest of the season. It was just his sixth appearance of the season, as well.

The Warriors (4-9-7, 3-4-6) put a lot of pressure on the Cerritos defense in the first half, as they maintained possession for most of the 45 minutes. Valdovinos came up with great saves on two Marcos Ambriz shots and also turned away Jorge Gutierrez on a hard shot.

The Cerritos defense did a good job of clearing pressure away from Valdovinos, as Ulysses Rosales, Austin DeMedeiros (Gahr HS), Nathan Martin (Long Beach Millikan HS), Ivan Vasquez (Fullerton HS) and Jason Hernandez (Stockdale HS) were effective in keeping the Warriors off the scoreboard.

It wasn't until the second half that the Falcons were able to generate any semblance of a consistent offensive attack. Although freshman Mark Cruz (El Toro HS) recorded the only shot on goal in the second half, Cerritos moved the ball deep into ECC territory, but either could not connect that final pass, or looked to move into closer range before the play falling apart.

Photos by Daryl Peterson