Playing in one of the toughest conferences in the state, the Cerritos College men's soccer team has been seeded #8 for the upcoming Southern California Regional Playoffs. The Falcons (13-6-2), who came in fifth place in the South Coast Conference Tournament, will receive a bye in the first round. They will host the winner of the #9-seeded Bakersfield College, who will host #24-seeded Glendale College on Wednesday. Cerritos owns a 5-0 win over Glendale this season, while they haven't taken on the Renegades since a 3-2 win during the 2023 season. The 2nd Round game will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Six of the 24 teams that qualified for the Southern California Regional Playoffs came from the South Coast Conference.

Both potential Cerritos opponents are in the Western State Conference South Division, with Bakersfield winning once, while the other meeting was a tie with Glendale.

As a team, Cerritos averages .257 goals a game, which is tied for 13th best in the state, while Bakersfield and Glendale are 25th and 27th best, respectively. The Falcon defense ranks tied for 28th in the state, and have allowed an average of 1.33 goals a game, while the Renegades are 21st in the state at 1.14 goals against a game and the Vaqueros rank 41st in the state (1.68).

Individually, sophomore Gustavo Arias (Fairmont Prep HS) leads the Falcons in goals (10) and assists (10), while sophomore Christopher Ramirez (Bishop Mora Salesian HS) has recorded nine goal and eight assists, with freshman Nathan Pineda (Santa Fe HS) checking in with eight goals. Cerritos has had 12 different players score goals on the year, while the pairing of sophomore goalkeeper Eduardo Enriquez (Linda Esperanza Marquez HS) and freshman Anthony Gomez (Los Alamitos HS) have combined to start all 21 games. Gomez has made 52 saves and a 1.23 goals against average, with Enriquez checking in with a 1.30 goals against and 21 saves.

Bakersfield forward Alejandro Alvarez is tied for fourth in the state with 15 goals, with the Glendale duo of Kevin Anjuyan and Eduard Yeghiazarov have combined to score 23 goals this season. Luis Gil, the Renegades sophomore midfield, is tied for second in the state with 15 assists.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL PLAYOFF PAIRINGS

#17 Irvine Valley (13-7-1) @ #16 Long Beach City (9-6-5)
Winner @ #1 Santa Monica (16-1-5)

#24 Glendale (8-5-7) @ #9 Bakersfield (14-4-4)
Winner @ #8 CERRITOS (13-6-2)

#20 Golden West (7-6-6) @ #13 MiraCosta (11-4-6)
Winner @ #4 El Camino (12-5-6)

#21 Santa Barbara City (7-7-6) @ #12 Chaffey (12-5-4)
Winner @ #5 Los Angeles Mission (11-4-3)


#18 Palomar (11-7-3) @ #15 Cypress (13-3-5)
Winner @ #2 Oxnard (12-2-4)

#23 Moorpark (9-6-5) @ #10 San Bernardino Valley (13-6-2)
Winner @ #7 Mt. San Antonio (11-3-5)

#19 San Diego City (11-6-5) @ #14 Fullerton (8-6-7)
Winner @ #3 Cuyamaca (18-1-2)

#22 Pasadena City (10-8-4) @ #11 Los Angeles City (12-4-6)
Winner @ #6 Norco (16-5-1)