Cerritos, Mt. SAC Top Early '19 SIA Men's Soccer State Poll

The South Coast Conference's success in men's soccer is well known and the sports information directors showed the respect for such programs as Cerritos College and Mt. San Antonio as the teams were tied for the No. 1 ranking on the first CCCSIA State Men's Soccer Top 20 Poll released this week.

The two perennial powers have combined to win nine of the last 13 CCCAA state championships, including Cerritos' crown last year. 

Cerritos is 5-0-1 in the early non-conference play while Mt. SAC is also undefeated at 5-0. Another undefeated SCC team, El Camino at 4-0-1, was voted No. 7.

For Cerritos, midfielder Bryan Ortega has a team-leading four goals. Goalie Luis Enciso has made a conference-high 17 saves to go with an 0.47 goals against average.

El Camino goalie Luis Garibay has four shutouts to his credit (0.20 GAVG, 13 saves).

Long Beach's Cameran Badal leads the SCC with five goals. Mt. SAC has been led by Angel Santoyo, who has three goals.

NEW CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT INTRODUCED

The South Coast experienced several changes for the '19 season. First, the divisions are no more as the conference goes back to being a 9-team solo conference. 

A new wrinkle is the introduction for the first time of a SCC Championship Tournament which will decide the conference title. Teams will face each other eight teams each in a round robin. The top eight teams then advance to a 3-match tourney with the squad that wins out at 3-0 winning the SCC title and an automatic bid to the SoCal Regional Playoffs.

The championship final will be hosted at El Camino College at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15. The conference season begins on October 8. 

Here is the SCC Championship Tournament format:

1st Round:
Friday, November 8th

Game 1: 8 seed at 1 seed

Game 2: 5 seed at 4 seed

Game 3: 6 seed at 3 seed

Game 4: 7 seed at 2 seed

2nd Round:
Tuesday, November 12th

Game 1 Winner vs Game 2 Winner

Game 3 Winner vs Game 4 Winner

Game 1 Loser vs Game 2 Loser

Game 3 Loser vs Game 4 Loser

Location of matches at higher seed, game times to be determined 

Final Round:
Friday, November 15th at El Camino College

1 pm: 7th Place Game on the ECC Practice Field

1 pm: 5th Place Game in the Stadium

4 pm: 3rd Place Game in the Stadium

7 pm: 1st Place Game in the Stadium