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Photo by
Juan Velez.
Cerritos used big plays and long
drives to open a large lead over Citrus
College Saturday night but the key to the
game was the defense. |
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Utilizing both big
plays and long drives, the Cerritos College football
team opened up a 21-0 lead over Citrus College on
Saturday night in their Southern California Football
Association National Division Central Conference
game, en route to a 42-17 victory. The Falcons (4-2
overall, 1-1 division) will now travel to Riverside
College next Saturday for a 6:00 p.m. contest.
On their first
drive of the game, the Owls (1-6, 0-3) punted and
downed the ball at the Falcon 1-yard line. Cerritos
proceeded to drive 99 yards on 14 plays, which
culminated on a 7-yard scoring pass from sophomore
quarterback
Jeffrey
Fischer (Lakewood HS) to
sophomore wide receiver
Sheldon
Smith (Culver City HS).
Fischer spread the wealth, connecting passes to five
different receivers on the drive.
In the second
quarter, freshman defensive end
Jeramey
Cutler (Lakewood HS) picked
off an Austin Goldsmith pass and returned it 16
yards for a touchdown right after the Falcons missed
a field goal attempt. On the ensuing Owl possession,
the Cerritos defense was just as opportunistic, as
sophomore defensive back
LeQuan
Lewis (Artesia HS/College of the
Sequoias) picked off a pass at the Citrus
49-yard line and maneuvered his way through players
for a touchdown and a 21-0 Falcon lead.
It was the
aggressive pass rush by Cerritos that forced
Goldsmith and David Potts into ill-advised passes,
with the Falcons recording 12 tackles for loss and
11 quarterback hurries. Cutler, who also added four
tackles, two hurries, a pass break-up and half a
tackle for loss, punted three times for a 49.3 yard
average, including a 62-yarder. He even found time
to complete a 16-yard pass to
Drew
Harris (Whittier HS) on a fake
punt.
Fischer and Smith
connected another time in the end zone to cap off an
11-play, 94-yard drive with a 10-yard scoring pass.
On the drive, sophomore running back
Duane Bowen
(St. John Bosco HS) collected 36 yards on
three carries in his return to the lineup after
missing two games with an injury.
Cerritos also
received a 31-yard scoring strike from Fischer to
freshman
Mario
Miller (North Torrance HS),
while freshman running back
Demetrek
Chambers (Long Beach Millikan HS)
closed out the scoring with a 10-yard run with 15
seconds left in the game. Fischer finished the game
completing 21-of-29 passes for 272 yards and three
touchdowns, while freshman wide receiver
Michael
Willie (Long Beach Wilson HS)
pulled in a season-high seven passes for 71 yards.
But the key to the
game was the defense, with freshman linebacker
David
Flores (St. Paul HS), who led
the team with 12 stops and 3 1/2 tackles for loss,
while sophomore defensive end
Ryan Davis
(Artesia HS) had a superb all-around game.
Along with his four tackles, Davis also
contributed 2 1/2 sacks, 2 1/3 tackles, for loss
and three quarterback hurries. Harris had his best
game of the season with six stops, as did freshman
linebacker
Matthew
Moody (Sonora HS).
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