With five first half goals, the Cerritos College women's soccer team had more than enough offense, as they defeated visiting ECC Compton Center on Friday in a South Coast Conference game. The nations's top-ranked Falcons (8-0-0. 2-0-0) received three goals from Nayeli Requejo (Bishop Amat HS), two from Carolina Ornelas (Artesia HS), along with a goal and three assists from Claudia Lopez (Downey HS) in defeating the Tartars (1-4-2, 0-2-0). Cerritos will now host El Camino College at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

It took the Falcons less than five minutes to get on the scoreboard, as Ornelas fed a pass through the Compton defense to Lopez, who pushed past the final defender and scored an easy goal past goalkeeper Junnipher Guerrero. Ornelas made it a 2-0 lead seven minutes later when she bent a shot over Guerrero's head into the upper corner of the net with a perfectly placed shot.

The scoring continued, as Cerritos tallied three more goals in the span of six minutes for a 5-0 lead before intermission. Controlling every aspect of the game, the tandem of sophomore April Juarez (Bishop Amat HS/USC) and Lopez sent quick-striking passes, which cleared the way for Requejo, who scored her first of three straight goals. After Compton was called for a hand ball on a centering pass in the box, Requejo converted the penalty kick. Lopez picked up her fourth point of the game when she sent the ball to Requejo, whose speed was overwhelming for the defense and she scored in the 40th minute.

In the second half, the Falcons continued to maintain possession of the ball, but looked more to work on fundamentals. They picked up their final goal of the game in the 53rd minute when freshman Celinna Montano (Warren HS), who had a superb game, recorded an assist when Ornelas showed speed on the outside for her second goal of the game. Freshman goalkeeper Adrianna Salazar (Downey HS) was asked to make just one first half save, as she recorded the shutout win.

Photos by Daryl Peterson