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Photo by
Juan Velez.
Season comes to end for Falcons with a
31-17 loss to Palomar. |
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For the second
year in a row, the Cerritos College football team
saw their season come to an end with a loss to
Palomar College. Last year, it was a 38-33 loss in
the Golden Down Bowl. On Saturday night, the Falcons
dropped a 31-17 decision to the Comets in the
National Bowl, which served as the first round of
the Southern California Regional Playoffs. It marked
the first time in the seven-year history of the new
format the Cerritos (9-2), the #3-seeded team,
reached the playoffs. As for #6-ranked Palomar, they
advance to the second round and will travel to
Fullerton College next Saturday.>
The Falcons had
their fair share of chances to tie the game, but
each time they came up short. The final time came as
a result of a Palomar fumble at their own 16-yard
line with 1:26 left in the fourth quarter. Cerritos
got as close as the 13-yard line until sophomore
quarterback
Chris
Morales (La Habra HS) was
picked off for the fourth time on the night and saw
his interception returned 98 yards for a touchdown
by Tevin McCaskill. Morales looked to hit wide
receiver
Dion Curry
(West Bakersfield HS) at the 4-yard line,
but the ball was high and tipped into the hands of
McCaskill.
On their previous
drive, Cerritos advanced to the Comet 10-yard line,
but Morales was incomplete on a fourth down play and
turned the ball over on downs. That set up the
fumble where the Falcons were picked off in the
final minute.
Late in the third
quarter, Morales was intercepted by Dean Faddis in
the end zone on third down at the Comets five-yard
line. Looking for freshman tight end
Lucas Mealy
(St. John Bosco HS), the ball was knocked
loose enough for Faddis to step in and grab the
ball, which ended another Falcon threat.
Palomar opened a
21-10 lead at halftime, which included a 26-yard
scoring strike from Nate Ong to Javon Reynolds from
26 yards out with 21 seconds left in the half.
However, the Falcons did get to within 21-17 after
Morales (9-for-32, 93 yards) and Mealy connected for
a seven-yard touchdown. With his 93 yards, Morales
set a new single-season passing record with 2,303
yards, breaking the old record of 2,264 set by
Ryan Matthews during the 1998
season.
On the night, the
rushing tandem of freshman
Jason Davis (La
Habra HS) and sophomore Demetrek
Chambers (Long Beach Millikan HS)
rushed for 96 and 92 yards, respectively, while
sophomore wide receiver
Joshua
Robbins (La Mirada HS) led the
team with four receptions. On defense, sophomore
linebacker
David
Flores (St. Paul HS) led the
team with 11 stops, while linebackers Cee
Jay Harris (Long Beach Wilson HS)
and
David Lopez
(Garfield HS) added seven apiece.
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