Taking their first overnight road trip of the season, the Cerritos College men's soccer team split their two games at the Hartnell Tournament over the weekend. The Falcons (3-1-0) opened with a 2-0 loss over their Northern California nemesis Fresno City College, while they responded with a 3-1 win over Irvine Valley College the following day. The team will host Bakersfield College (0-1-2) at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

Cerritos was looking for their first win over the defending state champion Rams since 2014 (0-2-3), which included a 1-0 loss in the CCCAA State Semifinals in 2019.

Fresno City jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute after withstanding some early Falcon offensive pressure. Unable to get one into the back of the net, Cerritos was forced to make adjustments to their formation to try and get the equalizer in the waning minutes of the game. The Rams were able to capitalize on that and picked up an insurance goal in the 81st minute to close out the game.

Freshman Miguel Martinez (Bright Star Secondary Charter Academy HS) accounted for three of the team's five shots on goal, with freshman goalkeeper Pablo Rivera (Basalt, CO) absorbing the loss and posted seven saves.

Looking to rebound against the Lasers, Cerritos scored three first half goals to take a commanding lead. It only took six minutes for sophomore Enrique Penate (Downtown Magnet HS) to get on the board in his first game of the season. He finished off a nice series of passes from Alex Rodriguez (Gertz Ressler HS) and Juan Camillo Moreno (St. Genevieve HS) to get the team started.

By halftime, sophomore Armando Ibarra, Jr. (Downey HS) would put the Falcons in a comfortable position with a pair of goals. He scored his first of two goals in the 29th minute and then right before halftime, picked up his second goal. Freshman goalkeeper Alex Ledesma (Bellflower HS) recorded six saves in earning the win.