Still looking for that right combination, the Cerritos College women's soccer team made good strides against visiting San Bernardino Valley College on Tuesday. The Falcons, (0-5-0), dropped a 2-0 non-conference decision, but did a good job of turning the Wolverines (3-2-0) away numerous times. The team will look for their first win on Friday when they take on Irvine Valley College at 1:00 p.m. in a game that will be played at OC Great Park 18.

Short on players and speed against San Bernardino Valley, Cerritos received stellar play from freshman defender Celeste Dominguez (Downey HS), who chased down players from behind who were intent on going in on a breakaway. Dominguez stole, deflected and shut down both Allyson Awunganyi and Yessika Gonzalez multiple times. The strategy for the Wolverines was to send the ball deep and try to outrace the Falcon defenders. They didn't expect Dominguez to equal their speed and in several instances, surpass it.

San Bernardino was finally able to break the scoreless tie in the 28th minute when Anisa Rodriguez was able to get around sophomore goalkeeper Anahi De Leon (Lynwood HS/East Los Angeles College), who made a move for the ball a little prematurely and was too far out of the net, leaving it open for Rodriguez. 

De Leon also kept the Falcons in the game and posted several great saves in the second half, as the Wolverines came out of intermission very aggressively. Once again, it was the aggressive play of De Leon that ended up resulting in San Bernardino's favor, as she came out to defend the shot from Addyson Awunganyi, who was able to slip a shot under her as she went down to make a save. De Leon finished the game with seven saves.

Offensively for the Falcons, they were able to maintain possession of the ball for longer stretches of time, but could not convert the finishing pass necessary for a high-percentage shot on goal. Cerritos took four shots, with only two of them on goal.

Photos by Daryl Peterson