In one of their more intense games in recent memory, the Cerritos College men's soccer team had a 90-minute battle with visiting El Camino College on Tuesday which resulted in a 1-1 draw. The Falcons (10-4-1, 3-1-1) trail only Long Beach City College (6-5-3, 4-1-0) in the South Coast Conference South Division. The team travels on Friday at 1:30 p.m. to take on the Vikings for first place in the division.

For the third game in a row, Cerritos scored within the first three minutes of the game to take an early lead. On the play, sophomore Gustavo Arias (Fairmont Prep HS) sent a precision pass to sophomore Allan Gonzalez (Lakewood HS), who fired a low, hard shot to the far corner of the net and past Warriors goalkeeper Luis Avelar for his third goal of the season.

But unlike the other two games, the Falcons weren't able to add to their lead, although they fired 10 shots in the first half. Prior to the end of the first half, sophomore Christian Ramirez (Bishop Mora Salesian HS) hit the crossbar with a hard shot in the 42nd minute.

The second half leaned more towards El Camino, who tied the game less than two minutes into the second half.

Additionally, the Warriors were awarded a pair of penalty kicks, but came up empty on both attempts.

In the 54th minute, Cerritos was called for a hand ball in the 18-yard box, but the shot by Amir Dawkins was turned away by Falcons goalkeeper Eduardo Enriquez (Linda Esperanza Marquez HS). It was Dawkins who tied the game for El Camino. Then, in the 69th minute, Enriquez was called for a foul in the box while chasing a loose ball in an attempt to clear it out of harm's way. Jaden Hancock fired the penalty kick that hit the crossbar, and when he received the rebound, fired wide.

The Falcons finished with 15 shots in the game, but only four were on goal.

Photos by Daryl Peterson