Looking for another shot at facing Long Beach City College in the South Coast Conference Tournament championship game, the Cerritos College men's water polo team dropped an 18-16 decision against Mt. San Antonio College on Thursday. With the setback, the Falcons (20-12, 4-2) will now face El Camino College in the third place game at 12:15 p.m. at the Falcon Aquatic Center on Saturday.

Cerritos trailed at the end of the first quarter and at intermission, but came out in the third period with three consecutive goals to take a 9-7 lead. Goals by Christian Acosta (Schurr HS), Isaiah Wright (Whittier HS) and Guillermo De La Mora (La Serna HS) put the team in front, while tallies from Marco Uribe (St. John Bosco HS) and Max Lucero (Whittier HS) extended the advantage to 11-8 late in the period.

Prior to the end of the stanza, the Mounties scored, and then posted three more goals to start the fourth period to take a 12-11 lead. Lucero scored again to tie the game at 12-12 before Mt. SAC started to pull away, as they opened up a 15-12 advantage with 3:31 remaining.

Each time the Falcons would fight to get back in the game, as they did when Julian Almanza (St. John Bosco HS) and Wright both scored to close to within 15-14, the Mounties had an answer and accounted for four of the final six goals in the game.

Using a tough pressing defense and with hints of cherry-picking on offense, Mt SAC was able to force 12 Cerritos turnovers, while the offense saw five of their shots hit the crossbar on the day.

Almanza (three assists), Wright (two steals) and De La Mora (two assists) all scored four times for the Falcons, while Lucero finished with a pair of goals. Aiden Parra (California HS), who made several big saves during the game, turned away 12 on the day and also posted a trio of steals.

Photos by Daryl Peterson