Fans arrived in waves to cheer on the El Camino College Warriors men’s water polo team in its home opener against a South Coast Conference opponent in the Cerritos College Falcons.

It was a hard-fought battle from start to finish but the Falcons (6-2) were able to drown out the noise of the home crowd to come out on top with a 16-9 victory.

“[The game] was very physical and unfortunately we got into some foul trouble,” Warriors first-year coach Noah Rubke said. “We don’t want to have our significant players in foul trouble because they’re too valuable to be on the bench, so we need them to stay in the water and just making decisions quicker.”

ECC freshman Cole Allyn led the Warriors with four goals, while sophomore Adian Morvice and freshman Brandon Guerrero contributed two goals each for the Warriors.

Cerritos freshman Brian Luque-Gutierrez led the Falcons’ offense with a total of three goals and five assists in the game. Falcons’ Mateo Fernandez and John Gomez also put in three goals each.

The ECC Warriors (2-3) will travel to Mt. San Antonio College for a four-game tournament starting on Friday, Sept. 20 at 11:10 a.m.

Updated Monday, Sept. 23, at 1:40 p.m. Headline was edited due to grammatical error.