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Big players come
up big in big games. It was never more evident for
the Cerritos College football team in their 27-17
National Division Central Conference win at College
of the Desert on Saturday night. The win improved
the Falcons, ranked #2 in Southern California, to
8-0 on the year and 4-0 in conference play. They
have their two most important games of the season
coming up, and will travel to Mt. San Antonio
College (7-1, 4-0) on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m.
contest. The Mounties defeated previous #1 El
Camino, 42-26 on Saturday night.
Leading just 24-17
in the fourth quarter, College of the Desert moved
the ball to the Falcon one-yard line and decided to
go for a touchdown on fourth down. But the duo of
sophomore linebacker Cee
Jay Harris (Long Beach Wilson HS)
and sophomore defensive end Jeramey
Cutler (Lakewood HS) stuffed
Roadrunner quarterback JD Bounantony for a five-yard
loss, which gave the Falcons possession of the ball
with 4:35 remaining.
On the ensuing
drive, sophomore running back Demetrek
Chambers (Long Beach
Millikan HS) broke off a 21-yard run to move
the ball out to the 35-yard line. On the same drive,
sophomore wide receiver
Michael
Willie (Long Beach Wilson HS)
hauled in a 37-yard pass from sophomore quarterback
Chris Morales (La Habra HS).
The drive finished when freshman kicker
Francisco Rodriguez (Bell HS)
booted a career-long 42-yard field goal with 1:49
left in the fourth quarter to give Cerritos their
27-17 lead.
It looked as
though Ricky Smith was going to put COD in great
field position when he returned the kickoff 63
yards. But sophomore Lenyatta Kiles
(Culver City HS) stripped the ball from
Smith and sophomore
David
Flores (St. Paul HS) recovered
the ball. The Falcons then ran out the clock to
secure their 8-0 record.
Earlier in the
game, freshman tight end
Lucas Mealy
(St. John Bosco HS) helped give the Falcons
a 14-0 lead with a pair of touchdown receptions,
while he pulled in his third with 55 seconds left in
the second quarter, as Cerritos led 24-7 at
intermission. He finished the day with five
receptions for 74 yards, while Willie led the team
with six catches for 81 yards. Morales completed
13-of-21 passes for 178 yards, while sophomore
running back Tylik
Carter (Long Beach Jordan HS)
rushed for 96 yards on 13 carries before getting
hurt early in the fourth quarter.
The defense came
up with some big plays, as COD ran 19 more plays
than the Falcons (70-51) and had the ball for almost
37 minutes. Freshman linebacker
David Lopez
(Garfield HS) led the team with 12 stops,
with Harris finishing with 11 tackles. As a team,
the Falcons recorded five quarterback sacks with
sophomore
Deon Goggins (Palisades HS)
leading the team with 1 1/2, while Cutler posted
three tackles for loss and six stops. Sophomore
linebacker
Jack
Francis (La Mirada HS) blocked
a punt that led to the team's second touchdown and
finished with five tackles.
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