Playing at the Golden West Tournament this weekend, the Cerritos College men's water polo team split their two games on the first day. The Falcons (17-8) opened with a 14-8 loss to Saddleback College and followed that with a 17-5 victory over San Joaquin Delta College. The team will play two more games on Saturday, starting with an 11:40 a.m. game against Sierra College followed by a 3:40 game against an opponent yet to be determined.

In the loss to the Gauchos, Cerritos surrendered the first six goals of the game before Jacob Colon (Schurr HS) ended that skid. The Falcons would get as close as 10-6 in the third period after goals from Colon, Kobe Hurtado (Cerritos HS) and Allan Jimenez (Schurr HS). However, Saddleback responded with two of the next three goals to extend their advantage.

Colon and Timothy Robles (Schurr HS) each scored three times for the Falcons, who were still without leading goal scorer Joshua Lamberton (Glendora HS). Robles also assisted on a pair of goals, as did Ruben Montoya (California HS), with goalkeeper Diego Campos (Downey HS) turning away six shots in the first three periods.

Cerritos came back against San Joaquin Delta and scored the first nine goals to open up an insurmountable lead. Those goals were scored by eight different players, as the Falcons had 11 players score at least once in the game. Johan Gayton (Downey HS) led the team with three goals, with a quartet of players scoring twice. Eric Estrada (Cerritos HS) posted three assists and three steals in the win, while Henry De Luna Pena (Baldwin Park HS) earned the win with six saves in the first three quarters.