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Photo by
Juan Velez.
Marshawn Friloux rushes for some of his 57
yards in the team's 47-10 win over Long
Beach City College. |
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In a series
that has spanned 52 years, the common belief is
that regardless of their record, whenever the
Cerritos College and Long Beach City College
football teams meet up, the games are expected
to be highly contested.
Frank Mazzotta, the Falcon head
coach for the last 32 years and member of the
1962 LBCC National Championship team, has always
stressed to his players and coaches that even if
both teams came into the game 0-9, it will still
be the biggest game of the season. For Mazzotta's
Cerritos team, they broke open a close first
quarter and slowly pulled away for a 47-10 win,
which improves their record to 3-0 on the year
while the Vikings dropped to 0-3. The 37-point
margin of victory was the second most lop-sided
in the series, with a 41-0 win by the Falcons in
1985 being the worst. Cerritos, who improved
their series lead over LBCC to 28-22-1, will now
play their second road game in a row when they
travel to Ventura College next Saturday for a
7:00 p.m. contest.
After driving
down and scoring on their first drive of the
game for the third time in a row this season and
12th time in the last 13 games, the Falcons saw
the Viking come back and get to within 7-3 by
the end of the first quarter. On their first
drive of the game, sophomore quarterback
Chris
Morales (La Habra HS)
connected with sophomore wide receiver
Marquis Williams (Carson HS)
from 30 yards out on a slant play. It was the
first catch of the season for Williams and third
in his Falcon career. In the second quarter
sophomore running back Marshawn Friloux
(Bellflower HS) busted in from 14 yards
out with 9:41 left in the second quarter.
The start of
the rout happened right before halftime after
Viking defensive lineman Aaron Davis was called
for roughing the passer. After a timeout,
Morales then found a diving
Michael Willie (Long Beach
Wilson HS) from 19 yards out with 18
seconds left in the second quarter. It was a
27-3 lead early in the third quarter when Viking
punter David Covey downed the ball after a low
snap, giving Cerritos the ball at the Long Beach
City 39 yards line. Five plays later, Morales
hit sophomore wide receiver
Joshua Robbins (La Mirada HS)
from three yards out on a pass in the corner of
the end zone.
While the
offense was moving up and down the field, the
defense was holding the Vikings to 114 yards on
the ground and 151 through the air. They put
pressure on LBCC quarterback Kevin Lubner all
night and stuffed their running game for the
better part of the game. The Cerritos offense
responded with 525 yards despite holding the
ball seven minutes less than Long Beach and
executing 12 less plays. Morales was nearly
perfect, completing 20-of-26 passes for 315
yards and three touchdowns. Willie led the team
with seven receptions for 94 yards, while
Robbins had his best game of the season with six
receptions for 107 yards.
Even when the
Vikings finally made it into the end zone,
freshman
Dion
Curry (West HS) responded
by bringing back the ensuing kickoff 82 yards
for the final points of the game. Prior to that,
sophomore running back Demetrek
Chambers (Long Beach Millikan
HS) busted through untouched for a 43-yard
touchdown, while freshman running back
Ray
Craig (Norwalk HS) caught
a 38-yard touchdown swing-out pass from freshman
quarterback
BJ Denker (North Torrance HS),
who scrambled out of danger before finding
Craig.
Prior to the touchdown by Chambers, the Falcon defense showed
their strength, as they shut down the Vikings
deep in Cerritos territory. Backed up to their
own four-yard line, the defense turned away LBCC
three times to take over on downs. On second
down, Lubner tried to run the ball, but was
slammed to the ground by sophomore linebacker
David
Flores (St. Paul HS). The next
two players were incomplete passes, as freshman
defensive lineman
Eli
Edwards (Long Beach Poly HS)
chased Lubner out of the pocket on third down,
with sophomore free safety
Eric
Russell (Gahr HS) breaking up a
fourth down pass in the end zone.
The offense moved quickly downfield and drove 96 yards on
five plays, with Chambers going the final 43
yards. On the third play of the drive, Morales
connected with Robbins down the right sideline
for a 51-yard gain, which set up the score.
The Falcon
linebackers did an excellent job stuffing the
middle, as sophomores
Chester Woolen (Gahr HS/Fresno
City College), Cee
Jay Harris (Long Beach Wilson
HS) and
Jack
Francis (La Mirada HS)
totaled 19 tackles, while Harris led the team
with 1 1/2 tackles for loss.
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