Opening the 2015 season by facing their toughest opponent from the year before, the Cerritos College women's soccer team posted a 2-2 draw with Fresno City College on Thursday night. The Falcons (0-0-1), the three-time defending CCCAA State Champions, played the game at Las Positas College, located in Livermore. The team will now face the host Hawks at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Cerritos defeated the Rams, 2-1 in overtime in the state semi-final game last season.

Cerritos opened the scoring in the seventh minute, as sophomore Megan Chlentzos (Beckman HS/Colorado Christian University) threw the ball back into play, where it deflected off a Rams player. It landed in front of Jamie Peters (Bishop Amat HS), who finished the play by finding the back of the net. Fresno City tied the game in the 14th minute off a rebound from a free kick. Freshman goalkeeper Ruby Nichols (Bishop Amat HS) made the initial save, but left a rebound, which was converted into the game-tying goal.

It was another throw-in that led to the second Falcons goal in the 27th minute, as freshman Amber Whitmore (Los Alamitos HS) saw the ball rattle around in the box, where freshman Leslie Walker (Long Beach Poly HS) was able to gain enough control to square herself in front of the net and get off a shot that got past the Rams goalkeeper. However, FCC was able to take advantage of a mishandled ball by Nichols (six saves) to tie the game in the 36th minute. Neither team was able to break the tie in the second half.

Photos by Ana Ramirez