Degree Of Difficulty Always High in SCC Men's Soccer
It's been two years since the last South Coast Conference men's soccer game, but some things don't change. The strength of the SCC in this sport continues to make it perhaps the toughest in the state and 2021 should be no different.
As of this week's CCCSIA Men's Soccer State Top 20 Poll, four of the conference's teams are part of the top 10 in #3 El Camino, #5 Cerritos, #9 Rio Hondo and #10 Mt. San Antonio Colleges. A SCC team has won nine of the last 14 CCCAA state championship crowns (Mt. SAC five, Cerritos four) and appeared in four other finals. Twice, in 2008 and 2014, the state final match was an-All-South Coast affair between Mt. San Antonio and Cerritos.
Being a part of the high seeds in the SoCal Regional Playoffs is a normal occurrence for the powerful conference.
Going into games being played on Sept. 17, El Camino is off to a 5-0 start, hold the state's current top ranking in the region, and may be a team that rivals the usual suspects in 2021. The Warriors have recorded shutouts over Irvine Valley, Santa Monica, and San Diego Mesa in non-conference play. ECC is paced by Andy Cabrera, who already has five goals, and Mario Carlos with four goals and an assist.
Cerritos is 5-1, including allowed only three goals in its five victories. The Falcons only loss is to #12 Fresno City, 2-0, a NorCal program that won the last state title in 2019 and another in 2017. Armando Ibarra Jr., an All-SCC Second Team selection in 2019, is the SCC's second-leading scorer thus far with five goals and two assists.
Rio Hondo is undefeated at 3-0-1 and allowed just one goal in the four games. The Roadrunners have a 0-0 tie v. #14 Santa Barbara CC and opened the season playing a non-conference match v. SCC member East Los Angeles, winning 1-0. Goalie Arturo Bustamante already has three shutouts and has not allowed a goal in 315 minutes of play while leading the SCC with 28 saves.
Mt. SAC is 3-1, but its only loss was against NJCAA 3-time, national champion Richland College (Texas). Mounties midfielder Jason Garcia (two goals, one assist) is a top player on an always deep Mt. San Antonio squad.
Long Beach City isn't ranked yet, but the Vikings (1-1-2) already have some impressive defensive performances. LBCC tied #7 Golden West, 1-1, and handed #18 Cypress its only loss, 1-0. Long Beach goalie Oliver Juarez has 23 saves and with help from a stifling Vikings' defender corps has allowed only three goals in the four games.
Los Angeles Harbor is 3-3 and has the conference's top scorer in Fernando Alejo, who scored four goals in a win over Glendale and has 13 points overall (six goals, one assist).
(photo is #2 Fernando Alejo of LA Harbor)
Pasadena City is 2-4, but played kick for kick with state #1 Taft in a 3-2 season-opening loss, and fell 1-0 to #13 Antelope Valley. The Lancers are paced by '19 All-SCC Second Teamer Mario Urbina, who has two goals and led PCC in scoring as a freshman.
Compton is 1-4-1 in the early going and East LA at 0-2-4, including consecutive ties v. Santiago Canyon, Orange Coast and Norco.
A fresh story is the return of athletics at Los Angeles City College for the first time since 2009. The Cubs are 1-2-3 and scored the new program's first win, 5-2 at Citrus on Sept. 14. Ryan Medina scored a goal and assisted on two others in the historic victory.
(Note revised with corrected information)--This season, the conference is crowning two division champions based on a 9-game schedule where all ten SCC teams play each other once. The five teams in the North are Rio Hondo, Pasadena, ELAC, LA City, and Mt. SAC while the South is comprised of Long Beach, Cerritos, El Camino, Compton and LA Harbor. While the division champions will be decided on how many team points (three points for a win, one point for a tie) they make over nine games, their postseason qualifying will be based on a regular-season ending SCC Tournament which will decide an automatic qualifier for the team that wins and then the next SCC automatic qualifier the highest team that places in the tourney from the other division.
In previous years of 5-team divisions, teams played twice against in-division teams and those eight games would determine the conference champion in the North and South. The tournament was added in 2019.