Looking to maintain second place in the South Coast Conference South Division, the Cerritos College men's soccer team posted a 2-0 victory at Long Beach City College on Tuesday. The Falcons (9-4-2, 3-1-1) will host Pasadena City College at 2:00 p.m. on Friday. The Lancers (6-5-3, 1-2-1) entered the day in fourth place in the SCC North Division.

Although the Falcons scored what would be the game-winning goal in the 21st minute of the game, it was their overall defensive effort that secured the win. Cerritos did not allow the Vikings a single shot on goal the entire game, which led to a shutout win by sophomore goalie Juan Pablo Camacho (Norwalk HS).

"We played a hell of game today," said head coach Benny Artiaga. "Our guys were super disciplined and put together one of our better games on both sides of the ball. This team is really starting to get better every game. The goal is always to finish strong and play our best soccer late in the game."

The core defense included Adrian Ibarra (Downey HS), D'Alessandro Rivera (Mater Dei HS) and Alberto Gomez (Los Alamitos HS), while Kevin Meza (ASU Preparatory Academy/Northern Illinois University), Diego Alvarado (Sierra Vista HS), Gebril Noah (Taft HS) also contributed to turning away Long Beach City.

Cerritos got on the board in the 21st minute when sophomore Mark Cristino (Downey HS/UC Riverside) finished off the play on a chipped shot that got past Vikings goalkeeper Yancy Monterola. Cristino received the ball on a through pass from freshman Jose Lopez (MY Academy HS). The Falcons were able to add an insurance goal in the 69th minute, which Lopez knocking home his fourth goal of the season. Freshman Luis Medina (Callifornia Connections Academy HS) got the play going and recorded his first helper of the season.