Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

Men's Water Polo

Mountie Men lose conference game on late goal to Cerritos, 19-18

Photo courtesy of Polly Perez
Photo courtesy of Polly Perez

Game Leaders

Cerritos
G: Angel Rojas - 9
A: Angel Rojas - 6
Sv: 2 Players (#1, #1A) - 4
Mt. SAC
G: Thomas Randles - 5
A: 3 Players (#5, #11, #14) - 3
Sv: Andres Jaramillo - 7

Team Stats

Mt. SAC
Cerritos

Shots

0
0

Saves

7
8
full stats
Posted: Oct 12, 2016

By John M. Sherrard

(CERRITOS) It was a battle to the end between two undefeated South Coast Conference rivals Wednesday afternoon at the Cerritos College Aquatic Center.

With the score tied with fourteen seconds remaining in the game, the Falcons scored a late goal to down Mt. SAC, 19-18, to remain undefeated in conference.

With the loss the Mounties fall to 4-1 in conference and 15-5 overall, while Cerritos College remains undefeated at 4-0 and is 18-2 overall. The Falcons are tied with Long Beach City College for first place, while Mt. SAC slipped into third.

The game saw 12 ties with Cerritos having a three-goal lead only once in the game.

Leading the way for the Mounties was sophomore defenseman Thomas Randles with five goals, followed by four from sophomore Scott McDill.

Sophomore utility Jeffrey Silverberg and freshman attacker Alec Rivera both had three goals.

Cerritos was led by Angel Rojas with a game-high nine goals.

"It was a great game," Mt. SAC coach Marc Ruh said. "We were down at times and battled back and maintained our composure. I'm really proud of them and they did a good job."

'Battling back' for sure, as the Mounties, down 13-10 to begin the third period, scored three consecutive goals to start the second half by McDill and two by Randles to tie it at 13-13 with 4:55 left in the period.

The Mounties again trailed, 18-16, with only 2:48 left in the game. But, again they came roaring back with two goals in less than a minute by Randles on a quick pass from McDill and the tying goal, 18-18, by freshman attacker Nick Perez from freshman utility man Roman Aceres.

"We wanted this game really bad," sophomore utility man Mike Meza said. "We're going to come back and when we see these guys again, we're going to give them a big, big push."

Meza was referring to the post-season conference tournament in which teams will face each other for the second time in the season.

Meza, who also had an assist and a steal in the game, gave the Mounties a 9-8 lead midway through the second period.

Next Wednesday the Mounties face another tough opponent in Long Beach City College at the Viking Aquatics Center. Game time is 4:15 p.m.