The Cerritos College men’s soccer team aims to get to the California State Championships after finishing the regular season in second place in the South Coast Conference after defeating East Los Angeles 2-1 on Nov. 12.

The Falcons finish the season 10-2-9 with a 7-2-5-conference record.

“According to statistics, we did great. We ended up being the third seed” Head coach Benny Artiaga said.

Forward  Ruben Gonzalez stated “We tied a lot this season, and though we didn’t get alot of loses, (the ties) effect our record a bit”

Forward Aaron Macedo and Goalkeeper Jhovany Hernandez will try to lead the Falcons to the state tournament and their first step toward that will be the first round of the Southern California Regionals, which will begin on Saturday, Nov. 20.

Macedo is the Falcon’s leading goal scorer and scorer, with 6 goals and 14 points. He is one of the 11 freshmen on Cerritos College.

Hernandez, the number one goalkeeper for Cerritos College has a record of 9-1-5 with a GAA of 0.99 and 7 shutouts.

Alongside them, Forward Cesar Castillo, the leader in assists and second in points for the Falcons, who has only played in 13 games, tries to assist the Falcons past the Southern California Regionals.

This is the second consecutive season that the Falcons finished second in the South Coast Conference.

The Falcons are without their leading scorer from last year as Luis Gonzalez, who left for Cal Poly Pomona after last season.

“Preparation (for the playoffs) has been good, we’ve been working on our conditioning a lot since Sunday. Other than that, we are ready” Gonzalez said.

With getting third seed in this season, many benefits came with it.

“(having third seed) means we will have 2 or 3 home games. That means that we will be playing (at home) up until the last round before the state finals” Artiaga said. “We haven’t lost on our field, so that’s perfect for us”.

The third place Falcons will be playing Chaffey College in their first playoff game on Nov. 20.