In all of his 39 years at Cerritos College, head coach Frank Mazzotta called the Falcon’s 23-7 loss to the Monarchs as bad an offensive showing he has ever seen.
He said, “We looked intimidated. Just terrible.”
The 23-7 loss to the Monarchs was the Falcons first season-opening loss since 2012.
“I’ll say one thing, [Quarterback Nick Mitchell] didn’t make any plays. And I’m talking about in the throwing game, he did not make a play in the throwing game. He’s going to get better, hopefully. Or he’ll be watching,” he said.
Mazzotta also admitted that it was not all on Mitchell.
Mitchell, formerly of Oregon State, struggled to gain 46 yards on 9 of 21 passing with an interception.
“I just have to stay relaxed and play football,” Mitchell said.
The offense found success late in the ballgame, scoring its first points of the game with 1:25 left.
“I think if we all do our jobs, we can move the ball and score touchdowns. It’s all about going out there and executing and not shooting ourselves in the foot,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell and the offense will get a chance to redeem themselves Saturday, Sept. 10 in the team’s home opener against Fullerton College.
The lone interception for Mitchell on the night was to no fault of his own.
In fact, the general consensus for the Falcons on the sideline was it was on the fault of the referees.
Wide receiver Landon Jones looked as if he was tossed to the ground before the ball got to him, which should have drawn a defensive pass interference penalty.
“I thought [Jones] obviously got pushed, the referee said they got tangled up, well the guy pushed him down. That was obvious,” Mazzotta said.
In the duration of the game, players and even some coaches on the sideline were crying out to referees for many different calls.
Most of the time, it was for targeting or unsportsmanlike conduct.
“There were a couple that should’ve gotten called, they got one or two of them,” Mazzotta said.
Los Angeles Valley head coach Robert Tucker felt it was all in the flow of the game.
He said, “There are always missed calls, by coaches, by referees in the first game, players playing in the game. We just need a lot of teaching, we have a lot of things we have to fix.
“I think a lot of kids played hard on both sides, we just have to get better.”
The aforementioned Jones was the beneficiary of many of the hard hits.
“Like the coaches always say, it’s in the past. Whatever happened, happened. The defense made some great stops and the offense had to come out and attack it. We didn’t really attack it as hard as I thought we would,” Jones said.
During the fourth quarter Jones was seen on the sideline icing his left ribcage in between series.
“Our trainer told me a little bit of cartilage came through my ribs. A defensive linemen landed on my back and everything got pushed together,” Jones said.
However, he did say next week he should be in the lineup despite the bruised rib.
Safety Elijah Walker was pretty animated on the sideline as the offense continued to struggle.
“[The defense] was saying ‘This is crazy,’ because we shouldn’t have lost to this team but honestly they won off of our mistakes,” Walker said.
The defense struggled in the first half allowing 20 points, while the Falcons’ offense had yet to put points on the board. It was the first time Cerritos was held scoreless in the first half since Sept. 15, 2012.
“Like three of [LAVC’s] touchdowns were on miscommunication. We just have to get it together,” Walker said.
On a night when USC had it’s 18-game season opener streak snapped in a 52-6 crushing by Alabama. Jones feels as though this loss could actually help the team.
“We definitely got to see what we were made of today. We know that we could’ve came out a lot harder, it’s a wake up call. We’re definitely going to come back and get revenge next week,” Jones added.
