The Cerritos College football team got its first home win of the season against Pasadena City College on Saturday, Oct. 5 with a score of 30-5.

Although this win takes it to a 2-2 record on the season, it did bring them to a 1-0 Northern Conference record.

On its opening possession, sophomore quarterback Cody Clements led the team to a early touchdown. That drive included a first down run by Clements and was topped off by a touchdown catch by freshman wide receiver X’avier Shepherd.

“We had a good week of practice, we were mentally sound,” Clements said.

As Pasadena City attempted to move the ball on its initial possession, sophomore defensive tackle David Moala stopped the running back behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of yards. Freshman linebacker Erick Zarate followed up with a quarterback sack on the very next play.

Pasadena City was forced to punt the ball away and Cerritos College began getting into penalty trouble on offense.

As the first quarter came to a end, Cerritos College began to move the ball. A combination of big runs by freshman running back Tonny Lindsey and sophomore running back Elijhaa Penny, paired with big catches by the receiving corps, got the ball to the six-yard line. That drive was finished with Penny scoring a six-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter. A missed point after the touchdown brought the score to 13-0 in favor of Cerritos College.

Neither team was able to really have a good possession, but Pasadena City overcame a sack from Moala and got a field goal to make the score 13-3.

On Cerritos College’s next possession, Lindsey attempted to run around his offensive line and was brought down for a loss of seven yards. Lindsey was hurt on the play, but would return later in the game.

Both teams already had a few minor penalties called on them, and the first big one came on a Pasadena City punt. A player from Pasadena City hit a Cerritos player and received a “Illegal hit to the head” call and was disqualified from the game.

Cerritos took the 15 yards given by the penalty and drove the ball down the field with a mix of passing and running plays. Penny ran a one-yard touchdown into the endzone with 30 seconds left in the first half, bringing the score to 20-3. That would be Penny’s second touchdown of the game.

During halftime, Cerritos College honored the 1983 team and showcased various players from that year.

Cerritos defense continued playing hard and kept Pasadena from moving the ball.

Cerritos put the ball in Penny’s hands often on its next possession. Penny ran for 14-yard run and eventually ran in a one-yard run for his third touchdown of the night, making the score 27-3.

Pasadena City began to move the ball downfield and was helped by a facemask penalty on Cerritos. Their drive was halted suddenly by a fumble on the 10 yard line and a Cerritos recovery.

Lindsey returned to the game, but was held to no gain and a three-yard run. A sack on the next play left Cerritos punting out of its own endzone. A bad snap resulted in sophomore punter Osborn Umeh fumbling in the endzone. Although he recovered the fumble, he was unable to get out of the endzone and was brought down for a safety, giving Pasadena City its final points of the night for a score of 27-5.

Moala made another defensive play by batting a pass down from the line of scrimmage and sophomore cornerback Aaron Williams came up with an interception a few plays later, to give the ball back to Cerritos.

A big 46-yard run by Lindsey was negated to a holding penalty against Cerritos. The offense failed to convert and punted away. Pasadena City failed to move the ball, so they punted away also.

As the fourth quarter started, Cerritos defense forced a fumble and recovered the ball.

Cerritos ended up getting a field goal out of this possesion, bringing the score to 30-5.

As the the game drew to a close, Cerritos defensive end William Dorton came up with two big tackle-for-losses to end Pasadena City’s final possesion. There was a bit of a scuffle after the punt return which got another pair of offsetting penalties on both teams.

Head Coach Frank Mazzotta feels that the team is moving in the right direction, “We are figuring out which kids can play, that becomes obvious after the first few games.” Mazzotta said.

Mazzotta believes that Penny is going to be the anchor for his offense, “Penny is the real deal, we are not quite ready with our quarterback and we are not doing enough with Elijhaa,” Mazzotta said.

“I was used to getting 20 to 25 snaps a game and our offensive line is getting better, we have better communication now,” Penny said.

Mazzotta appears to not be too concerned with the multiple delay-of-game penalties that Cerritos received.

“We do a lot of pre-snap adjustments. We will get the little things straightened out,” Mazzotta claimed.