|
For the first half of their Mission
Conference National Division game against Golden West
College on Saturday night, the Cerritos College football
team had a difficult time figuring out the option-style
offense the Rustlers were running. The Falcons trailed
17-6 at intermission and needed to make some adjustments
if they planned on getting back into the game. They did
just that, scoring 35 second half points and posted a
41-27 win at LeBard Stadium on the campus of Orange
Coast College. With the win, Cerritos is now 3-4
overall, with all three wins coming on the road, while
they evened their divisional record to 1-1. Next
Saturday, the team will look to get back to the .500 mark
when they travel to El
Camino College for a 6:00 p.m. contest.
The key to the second half was the
first series of plays run by the Rustlers, as the
Falcons shut them down on three plays, forcing a punt.
On the first play, sophomore defensive tackle
Justin
Vasquez (Diamond
Bar HS) recorded a sack, while the defense
turned up the heat. On their first offensive possession
of the third quarter, sophomore running back
Rylon Thomas
(Valencia HS)
accounted for all of the offensive yardage and
eventually scored on a one-yard plunge with 11:00 left
in the third quarter. The Falcons were helped along by a
roughing the passer call against the Rustles, before
Thomas broke off a 22-yard run that placed the ball at
the one-yard line.
It was more defense as the second
half progressed, with the Falcons stuffing a fake punt
attempt on the next Golden West possession. Faced with a
four-and-one at the Rustler 29-yard line, Golden West
punter Shane Webber tried to run a fake punt, but was
stuffed for a one-yard loss by freshman linebacker
Kupono Kaawa
(Santa Fe HS).
Freshman quarterback
Chad Manis
(Los Alamitos HS)
opened the ensuing drive with a 12-yard completion to
sophomore wide receiver
Jerrad Nutt
(California HS),
followed by a 15-yard strike to freshman wide receiver
Greg Moore
(Gardena HS),
which put the ball down at the one-yard line. After
Thomas was stuffed at the line of scrimmage, Manis threw
a touchdown pass to tight end
Brennan
Houston (Gahr
HS) and after a two-point conversion, the
Falcons led, 20-17.
The game stared to get a little
strange after that, when Rustler quarterback Les Obie
fumbled on the first play from scrimmage after the
Cerritos touchdown, with freshman defensive back
Hilton Dawson
(Dominguez HS)
scooping up the ball and going into the end zone
untouched from 42 yards out with 6:05 left in the third
quarter. Within a span of 4:55, Cerritos scored 21
points to take a 27-17 lead.
Golden West made a run at the Falcons
in the fourth quarter when Manis attempted a fourth-down
punt only to have it blocked by Lawrence Leovao and
returned 29 yards for a touchdown by Joe Garvey with
4:23 left in the game. After the extra point was made,
Cerritos led, 27-24. It only took the Falcons two plays
to regain their 10-point lead, as Thomas busted up the
middle for a 54-yard touchdown with 3:11 remaining, and
swelled their lead to 17 points less than a minute
later. On a third-and-15 for the Rustlers at their own
six-yard line, Kaawa sacked Obie, who fumbled the ball
with sophomore defensive tackle
Darrell
Tupuola (Long
Beach Poly HS) recovering the ball in the
end zone for a touchdown. The Rustlers tacked on a
last-minute field goal to close out the scoring.
Through the first half, the Rustlers
racked up 233 total yards, but were limited by the
Falcon defense to just 25 yards in the third quarter
and 80 in the fourth quarter, with 36 coming on their
final drive of the game. Cerritos finished with 270
total yards, with 199 coming on the ground. Thomas
finished with 128 yards and two touchdowns on 16
carries, while Manis added 78 yards on seven carries.
Through the air, Manis only completed 9-of-16 passes for
74 yards, with sophomore
Cory Rhoane
(Gahr HS)
pulling in four for 19 yards and one score.
On defense, sophomore linebacker
Aaron Alonzo
(Mayfair HS)
led the team with 11 tackles, although Vasquez had a
great game, as he collected nine stops, with three
tackles, for loss, one sack and one quarterback hurry.
Kaawa had his best game of the season with eight stops,
two tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble and a
quarterback hurry. |
