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

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

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 second.

The Mounties will hve next week off and will face another tough opponent at LBCC on Wednesday October 26. Game time is 4:15 p.m.

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 (Claremont HS) with five goals, followed by four from sophomore Scott McDill (Walnut HS, Air Force Academy).

Sophomore utility Jeffrey Silverberg (Walnut HS) and freshman attacker Alec Rivera (Chino Hills HS) 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 (Upland HS) from freshman utility man Roman Aceres (Centennial HS).

"We wanted this game really bad," sophomore utility man Mike Meza (Chino HS) 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.