The Long Beach City College men's soccer team suffered a 5-1 South Coast Conference loss to visiting Cerritos College on Friday. Three second-half goals by the Falcons put the game out of reach for LBCC.

The loss dropped Long Beach to 4-3-3 overall and 1-2-1 in the SCC while No. 4 nationally-ranked Cerritos improved to 10-0-1 and 4-0-0 in conference play.

The Falcons controlled the tempo of the game from the opening whistle and outshot the Vikings by an 11-3 margin.

Cerritos' Daniel Garcia scored a pair of goals in the first half to stake the Falcons to a 2-0 lead. He headed in a cross pass from Gerardo Soto in the 23^rd minute and scored on a nice breakaway pass from Angel Ayala in the 28^th minute to give the Falcons all the momentum they would need.

But Long Beach got some of its confidence back late in the first half. A penalty kick was awarded after Cerritos goalkeeper Danny Lizama took down LBCC's Luis Reynoso near the goal. Freshman Robert Burgos buried the PK in the 45^th minute and LBCC trailed by just one (2-1) at halftime.

The Vikings came out with a higher intensity level in the second half, but all thoughts of an upset were halted when Cerritos' Alejandro Covarrubias was able to put back a rocketed shot off the left post for a goal in the 59^th minute.

Christian Alvarez scored on a Cerritos penalty kick in the 71^st minute and Dominique Ochoa closed out the scoring with his goal in the 74^th minute.

LBCC freshman Cesar Tamayo posted three saves in goal in the loss.

Long Beach returns to action on Tuesday (Oct 11) when it travels to L.A. Harbor for a 1 pm conference game.

Photo: Freshman Robert Burgos scored the lone goal for the Vikings. (Photo by Chris Ruiz)