Second Half Woes Sink Warriors against Cerritos
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cerritos (7-0-2, 2-0-0) | 0 | 3 | 3 |
|
El Camino (4-4-3, 0-1-2) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
TORRANCE, Calif. – After one half of play, El Camino College held a one-goal advantage against the No. 1 ranked team in the state. But in the span of four minutes in the second half, that all changed.
The Warriors gave up three goals to the Falcons in the second half and fell 3-1 Friday afternoon in a South Coast Conference contest at Murdock Stadium.
Jason Santana notched his team-high fifth goal of the season in the 27th minute to give the Warriors the lead and they held on to that advantage for the next 27 minutes.
But early in the second half, the Falcons tied things up as Guy Carven headed the ball past Warriors keeper Cesar Amezcua off a free kick from Luis Garcia to level the match, 1-1, in the 55th minute. Just a few minutes later, the Falcons caught the Warriors defense flat-footed as Jose Rivera lofted a pass behind the ECC defenders and Luis Garcia sprung free for a breakaway. He beat Amezcua one-one-one to give the Falcons the lead and they never looked back. Rivera would add an insurance goal in the 85th minute to secure the win for Cerritos.
Amezcua played a solid game for ECC, making four saves in the loss including two point-blank stops late in the first half to preserve ECC's lead before the half. In the 42nd minute, the Falcons lofted a pass into the box and Christian Perez fired a shot inside the six-yard box where Amezcua was waiting for the first save.
The rebound went high and came down right to Carlos Payeras, who pounced on the ball and fired another shot. Amezcua, still recovering from the initial stop, got his right leg out and made the kick-save to keep the Falcons off the board in the first half.
The Cerritos onslaught proved to be too much, however, as the Falcons unloaded 23 shots including 13 in the second half against the Warriors. Seven of the attempts found the mark with Amezcua knocking away four of those shots.
El Camino will take a brief break from conference play as the Warriors head to College of the Canyons for a non-conference affair on Oct. 3. They return to SCC action Friday, Oct. 6 at Compton College.
