Throughout a long season, every team has to make adjustments due to injuries. For the Cerritos College men's water polo team, those adjustments happened to have been thrown upon them just as the post-season was about to begin. First, the team's best 2-meter defender, sophomore Peter Roldan was injured, and right before the start of the playoffs, sophomore Marlon Moreno, a 100-goal scorer, was injured in practice. Finally, freshman Jacob Graham suffered an injury, which hurt the team's depth dramatically.
In spite of the setbacks, the Falcons played a solid game in the Southern California Regional Playoff semifinal game against Long Beach City College on Saturday morning at Mt. San Antonio College. With the game close after the third quarter (13-10), Cerritos ran out of gas, and was defeated, 18-12, which eliminated them from a berth in the CCCAA State Tournament. Then, in the third place game, the Falcons were defeated by Los Angeles Valley College, 16-10, which ended their season with a 23-11 record.
"The guys played real hard today," said head coach Joe Abing. "In the middle of the third quarter against Long Beach, it was still a three-goal game, but we couldn't hang on. Then, with only two hours of a break, we had to play the third place game. Not having Peter, Marlon and Jacob was really a tough break. I'm very proud of our competitive spirit. This was a great team."
It was also a record-breaking year for the Falcons, as well. Freshman Angel Rojas obliterated three single-season records, as he set new standards in goals (155), steals (105) and assists (99). He was one assist away from being the college's first player to record over 100 in each of the categories. Add in Moreno's 105 goals and Cerritos had their first two-player 100-goal scorers.
November 25, 2015
M. Water Polo: Falcons receive post-season awards
November 14, 2015
M. Water Polo: Falcons finish fourth at SoCal Championships
November 13, 2015
M. Water Polo: Falcons overcome injuries to post playoff win
November 8, 2015
M. Water Polo: Falcons seeded #3 for playoffs
November 7, 2015
M. Water Polo: Loss keeps Falcons in 2nd place
November 6, 2015
M. Water Polo: Win sends Falcons to conference championship game
October 24, 2015
M. Water Polo: Cerritos beaten twice in tournament
October 23, 2015
M. Water Polo: Falcons earn pair of wins at tournament
October 14, 2015
M. Water Polo: Angel Rojas named CCCAA Male Athlete of the Month
October 14, 2015
M. Water Polo: Cerritos defeats LA Trade-Tech, 16-3
October 12, 2015
M. Water Polo: Falcons drop close game to LB City
October 10, 2015
M. Water Polo: Team comes back to pick up win at tourney
October 9, 2015
M. Water Polo: First day of tournament ends in split
October 7, 2015
M. Water Polo: Angel Rojas scores school-record 11 goals in win
October 2, 2015
M. Water Polo: Falcons sweep both games to extend streak
September 30, 2015
M. Water Polo: Team pulls away from Mt. SAC for win
September 28, 2015
M. Water Polo: Team records 10th win in a row
September 26, 2015
M. Water Polo: Team scores 37 goals in two wins at tournament
September 25, 2015
M. Water Polo: Cerritos wins pair of games at SD Mesa Tournament
September 23, 2015
M. Water Polo: Cerritos scores a pair of wins
September 16, 2015
M. Water Polo: Falcons earn a pair of home wins
September 11, 2015
M. Water Polo: The Falcons split their two games at the Golden West Invite
September 6, 2015
M. Water Polo: Cerritos splits four games in Annapolis