The Cerritos College Falcons men’s soccer team defeated the College of the Desert Roadrunners 3-1 on Aug. 22 in their season-opening game.
The Falcons came out flying in the first half as forward Christian Ramirez kicked a pass to midfielder Gustavo Arias who came into the box and scored the opening goal.
The Roadrunners immediately went on the attack after Arias‘ goal.
Roadrunners midfielder, Gerardo Montellano, kicked a long ball into the box to his teammate Destry Lanza and beat Falcons goalkeeper Anthony Gomez to tie the game.
It became a back-and-forth affair as both teams battled for the lead. Goalkeepers, Andrew Marquez and Gomez, were spectacular keeping the game leveled.
The intensity and physicality picked up in the second half.
Falcons head coach, Benny Artiaga, said, “we physically took over and basically, we did what we had to do in the second half.”
Falcons forward Julio Portillo came in through the midfield, but was tripped by Roadrunners defender Christian Rojas Velez and the referee was awarded Portillo a free kick.
Portillo stepped up to the free kick and put the ball in the top left corner to retake the lead.
Portillo said, “the second I got fouled, I knew I wanted the free kick. I just saw the opportunity, took it and shot it and it went in. I’m grateful it went in.”
As play resumed, the Roadrunners went on the attack coming in wave after wave. Gomez made save after save protecting the one goal lead.
The Falcons were looking for that one goal to put the game away. Forward Alejandro Orepeza passed to defender Edgar Ausencio who then kicked the ball into the box.
It became frantic as players were battling for the ball. Falcons forward Jason Hernandez gained control of the ball and shot it to the bottom right corner to score his first college elite goal and Cerritos’ third of the day, sealing the win.
Hernandez on scoring his first college goal said , “It feels good, I was so excited, I don’t know what to do, so I did a front flip, that’s my signature move.”
Portilla said “I mean, it was a solid win. There’s a bunch of things we could fix, but overall, pretty happy with our performance.”
Artiaga said “we are expected to perform at a certain level. we got the win, which is all that matters. But I don’t feel like we worked and played as well as we could have.”
The Falcons head on a six-game road trip starting the Hartnell Tournament against the Fresno City College Rams on Aug 29.
