Cerritos College men’s water polo team took the first win in the Cerritos Mini-Tournament on Oct. 3 against Citrus College Owls by a score of 22-12.

With a strong 6-2 lead in the first period, the Falcon men maintained a strong and aggressive defense throughout the game.

“We did a good job of controlling the game,” Cerritos head coach Joe Abing said as he’s describing that the team could’ve done a better job defensively at times but overall they did a good job of being in control of the game.

Every athlete on the team had the opportunity to contribute to the win and get play time in the water as well as work on their fundamentals and get warmed up for the next game in the mini-tournament.

Freshman Julian Almanza led the game by scoring four goals for the falcons while Christian Acosta , Marco Uribe, Isaiah Wright, and Guillermo De La Mora contributed three goals each.

With all three goal keepers getting play time in the Falcon pool Aiden Parra, Tripp Johnson and Geo Fagiani combined for 10 saves against the owls.

“That’s the goal to be goal is to be getting better everyday,” Abing said while explaining that even in games like this one where they won by a significant amount they still need to recognize the things that they can do better but sees that the team is improving every game.

Wright was recognized by his coach and teammates for his performance being described as one of his better games offensively and defensively. With four steals and one assist Wright proved to be the most valuable player of the game against Citrus.

“I use every game to improve and get better. I use it as practice, I still put in effort even though they may be an easier team,” Wright said.

The second match of the Cerritos tournament saw the Falcons lose in double overtime against San Diego Mesa college but now look to its next conference match against the El Camino Warriors on Oct. 8 at 3 p.m.