In one of their traditional defensive battles, the Cerritos College men's water polo team came away with a 9-7 South Coast Conference win over visiting Mt. San Antonio College on Wednesday. The Falcons are now scheduled to compete in the Golden West II Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

The win over Mt. SAC was tightly contested from start to finish with each possession holding a great deal of value. The Falcons were able to get off 32 shots and limited their turnovers, but finding the back of the net was not easy on either side of the pool.

One of the keys to the Cerritos win was their ability to score late in the quarter. With the match tied at 1-1, freshman Michael Reyes (Cerritos HS) scored with 1:18 left in the first quarter, while a pair of last-minute goals in the second quarter upped the team's lead to 5-2 at intermission. In both instances, it was sophomore Joey Hurtado (Cerritos HS) who scored for Cerritos, while he led the team with three goals on the day. His goal with :54 seconds left was followed by an Owen Fahringer (Long Beach Millikan HS) save in goal, with the transition leading to another goal with :04 seconds on the clock.

The Mounties made it a 7-5 affair heading into the final quarter until an opening possession goal by Juan Anguiano (Kennedy HS) gave the Falcons a three-goal cushion. The teams wound up trading goals in the fourth quarter, while the Cerritos defense came up with a pair of steals and Fahringer polished off the game with nine saves.

Freshman Dominic Hernandez (Schurr HS) was limited to just one goal, but still made key contributions with three steals and three assists, while freshman Abimael Anorve (Mira Costa HS) led the team with four steals.

Photos by Daryl Peterson