The Cerritos College soccer field had been a horror chamber for the Pasadena City College men’s soccer team the past 13 years. But after 14 straight losses at the Norwalk campus, the Lancers upended the state No. 11-ranked Falcons, 2-0, Tuesday afternoon in a South Coast Conference crossover game. PCC improved to 7-3-3 overall as […]
The Cerritos College soccer field had been a horror chamber for the Pasadena City College men’s soccer team the past 13 years. But after 14 straight losses at the Norwalk campus, the Lancers upended the state No. 11-ranked Falcons, 2-0, Tuesday afternoon in a South Coast Conference crossover game.
PCC improved to 7-3-3 overall as Yader Rodriguez ripped a shot into the upper corner from the right side of the goalie box for the game-winning goal in the 41st minute. Diego Rodriguez assisted on the score. In the 78th minute, Rodriguez was tackled in the box and it resulted in Manuel Chavez scoring on a penalty kick for the insurance goal.
Lancers freshman goalie Kristopher Guerra made seven saves to record the shutout. He stoned Oscar Canela on a late second-half attempt to preserve the blanking. Cerritos dropped to 6-4-4 on the season.
PCC’s losing streak at Cerritos included two SoCal Regional Playoff defeats in 2004 and 2008. The Lancers had been outscored 52-6 in the stretch and snapped a string of four straight shutout losses at Cerritos going back to 2012.
“This is a special team,” said PCC first-year head coach Henry Cabral, who suffered through a portion of the losing streak as an assistant coach to Edgar Manvelyan. “I know I got tired of watching us play some subpar games here the past few years, so it was gratifying to see us play to our potential and beat a great program. Our key sophomore leaders are playing some of their best soccer right now. We have such good depth that we don’t lose a beat when we make substitutions.”
The Lancers next host El Camino College-Compton Center on Friday, Oct. 21 in a 4 p.m. SCC crossover game at Robinson Stadium.
