It seems that each year the Cerritos College men's water polo team is playing rival Long Beach City College for the South Coast Conference championship. It was no different on Saturday at Pasadena City College, as the two teams played in the championship game for the seventh year in a row. In 2012, it was the Falcons that broke a five-year streak where they came in second place by defeating the Vikings. However, LBCC regained the conference title with an 11-9 win this season, as they broke a 9-9 tie by scoring the final two goals of the game.

Cerritos (15-13), with five of their losses coming against four-year colleges, was seeded #7 for the Southern California Regional Playoffs, which will take place at the Falcon Aquatic Center starting on Thursday. The Falcons will open the tournament when they face #10-seeded Fullerton College at noon in a play-in game, with the winner advancing to play at 12:45 p.m. on Friday. It will mark the first meeting of the season against the Hornets (21-7), the fourth place team out of the Orange Empire Conference.

In the loss to the Vikings, Cerritos led 5-4 at halftime, but LB City scored a pair of goals to take a 6-5 lead into the third quarter. In a wild high-scoring 4th quarter, the Falcons came back from 9-7 to tie 9-9 on back-to-back goals from sophomore Miguel Garcia (Monetbello HS). With 3:07 left, LBCC picked up its sixth power play goal of the game on a shot by Marino Fatovic to take a 10-9 lead and then added an insurance goal to close out the game.

Garcia accounted for six of the team's goals, while he also assisted on three others. Freshman goalkeeper Alfredo De La Mora (Bell Gardens HS) matched save for save with LBCC's Lazar Andric and finished the game with 15 stops. Sophomore TJ Tigerina (Bell Gardens HS) recorded three steals in the game.

In the semi-finals, the Falcons defeated Mt. San Antonio College, 13-8, as Tijerina and freshman Marlon Moreno (Virgen del Rosario, Venezuela HS) each scored four times. Garcia dished out five assists and posted a pair of steals, while De La Mora was strong in goal, making 12 saves and adding four steals. Sophomore Randy Baldwin (Buena Park HS/Fullerton CC) registered a pair of goals and assists in the win.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL PLAYOFFS SEEDING

1. Long Beach City
2. Golden West
3. Orange Coast
4. Cuesta
5. Riverside
6. Grossmont
7. Cerritos
8. Mt. San Antonio
9. Ventura
10. Fullerton