On the heels of their fifth 3C2A State Championship and second United Soccer Coaches National Championship, the Cerritos College men's soccer coaching staff has received another national award. Head coach Benny Artiaga and his staff have been named the Far West Soccer Coaches Staff of the Year among all Division III (non-scholarship) community colleges. It marks the fifth time Artiaga, and now his staff, have been honored with the award. Artiaga's staff includes Chris Lekavich, George Artiaga, Alex Diaz, Tony Leone and Jeffrey Payeras and Arna Kilikarslan.

"What an absolute honor to win this award," stated Artiaga, who has now been named the Far West Coach of the Year five times in his career. "It will never get old to celebrate my staff and all the work they put in day in and day out. I love the recent change from Coach of the Year to Staff of the Year because this award, much like our team, is a team award. We all put in our grain of salt into making this an unforgettable experience for our remarkable young men and student-athletes."

At one point this season, the Falcons were 10-5-1 on the year after a disheartening 4-0 loss to rival Long Beach City. But Cerritos pulled themselves together and went 7-1-2 in the final 10 games, which concluded with the team defeating Hartnell Colege, 2-1 in overtime to win the 3C2A State Championship.

For just the third time in his 21 seasons as the Falcons head coach, Artiaga and his team finished lower than either first or second place in the South Coast Conference, and also came in just fifth place in the conference tournament. Cerritos was seeded #8 for the Southern California Regional Playoffs and received the final first round bye. They opened the postseason by defeating Glendale College, 7-2, which set them up for a rematch with the Vikings.

In that game, the two teams played to a 3-3 tie through regulation and two overtime periods, which sent them to penalty kicks. Cerritos pulled out the game, 4-2 on penalty kicks before defeating Santa Barbara City (3-1) and then Cañada College in the state semifinals, which set up their championship win over Hartnell.