After coming in second place at the South Coast Conference Tournament Championships, the Cerritos College men's water polo team has been seeded #8 for the Southern California Regional Championships. The Falcons (21-13) will be facing #9-seeded Mt. San Antonio College (15-14), the team they defeated 12-11 in the conference tournament semifinals over the weekend. The teams will face each other at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday at Long Beach City College, with the winner facing #1-seeded Golden West (22-3) on Friday.

Although Cerritos has had their fair share of success against the Mounties (33-10 under head coach Joe Abing), the regional championships have not been kind to the Falcons. Cerritos did defeat Mt. SAC, 16-14 in the 2016 regional playoffs, but saw their season come to an end at the hands of the Mounties in 2009 and 2010. Since the 2003 season, the Falcons are 10-17 in regional playoff games.

The Falcons are led by sophomore Dominic Hernandez (Schurr HS), who leads the team with 77 goals, which ranks ninth in the state, while his 67 assists are the fourth most in the state. He turned in a school-record 12 exclusions drawn against Long Beach City College in the conference championship game, and has 72 on the season, which puts him in a tie for the state lead. Freshmen Allan Jimenez (Schurr HS) and Kobe Hurtado (Cerritos HS) are also offensive threats for Cerritos, as they have scored 64 and 60 goals, respectively this season. Always a team that has spread out it's offense, Cerritos had seven players with 30 or more goals this year.

As for the Mounties, they are paced by Brandon Fabrega, who is fourth in the state with 103 goals and ranks third in the state with 85 steals. Teammate Zach Ewing is right behind him with 83 steals to go along with 43 goals and 49 assists. Goalie Noah Stark leads the state with 330 saves.