Clinging to a 9-8 lead after three periods against host Rio Hondo College on Wednesday, the Cerritos College men's water polo team was able to come away with a 13-9 win. The South Coast Conference victory keeps the Falcons (8-2, 2-0) unbeaten in conference play as they get set to host a one-day mini-tournament on Friday. Cerritos will open with an 8:30 a.m. contest against San Diego Mesa College and follow that with a 1:00 p.m. match against Los Angeles Valley College.

The match was tied five times, with the latest being a 9-9 score in the fourth period after the Roadrunners (2-10, 1-2) tied it with 5:36 on the clock. However, Cerritos would keep them off the scoreboard the remainder of the game, as they went on to score the final four goals to secure the victory.

Freshman Mateo Fernandez (St. John Bosco HS) broke the tie with 4:31 remaining in the game, with three other players scoring to close out the scoring. Freshman Kevin Elizarraraz (Buena Park HS), who accounted for the final goal of the game with :28 seconds left, led all scorers with six goals on the day, along with a match-high eight steals. Sophomore Arturo Ortuno (Universidad la Salle, Mexico) contributed a trio of goals and assisted on two others, while sophomore Raul Muniz (Colbach, Mexico) scored twice.

As a team, the Falcons posted 22 steals and received three each from sophomore Dylan Sun (Cerritos HS) and freshman Rodrigo Baca (Kennedy HS). Freshman goalkeeper Zachary Jenkins (La Serna HS) picked up a pair of saves in the final run for Cerritos, and capped off the match with eight saves.