On the first day of the Golden West #2 Tournament, the Cerritos College men's water polo team came away with one win in two games. The Falcons (21-4) opened with an 11-5 win over Los Angeles Valley College and followed that with a close 10-9 defeat at the hands of Riverside City College. The team's four losses this season have been by a combined seven goals. On Saturday, Cerritos will return for two more games, as they face West Valley College (12:50 p.m.) and Cuesta College (4:20 p.m.).

Cerritos vs. Los Angeles Valley: The Falcons jumped out to a 4-1 lead after the first period and increased that advantage to 8-4 by halftime. Sophomore Angel Rojas (Colegio Fray Luis Amigo, Venezuela) accounted for six of those first eight goals, with five other players scoring once for Cerritos. Freshman goalie Matthew Contreras (Montebello HS) led the fast break offense with three assists in the first period and also finished the game with six saves. Freshman Kameron Simmons (Evanston Township, IL HS) led a defensive attack with three steals, while a quartet of other players posted two each.

Cerritos vs. Riverside: A disasterous second quarter turned a 3-1 lead into a 7-3 deficit by halftime as the Tigers outscored the Falcons, 6-0. Consecutive goals by Rojas and another by Simmons drew the team to within 7-6 in the third quarter until Riverside responded with three straight goals. In the fourth, Rojas picked up his fourth of the game, followed by freshman Salvador Orozco (Montebello HS) at 3:41. Both teams missed out on scoring chances until Simmons scored with :44 seconds to give the Falcons one last chance. The Tigers called timeout after the goal, but failed to score, with Cerritos calling timeout with :30 seconds left in hopes of setting up the tying goal. A missed shot was followed with another Riverside timeout, and they were able to run out the clock for the win. Contreras posted 12 saves in the game.