Despite missing out on a bowl game for the first time since the 2012 season, the Cerritos Falcons football team still had its fair share of names received season ending awards.

Sophomore linebacker Alex Bush took home the highest honor, being named the All-Northern Division Defensive Player of the Year.

“It was a huge accomplishment for me, I really put in a lot of work during the offseason. Being under recruited made me push myself to my limit,” he said.

Bush’s 106 tackles led all of Southern California while he finished tied for third-most in the entire state of California.

“Finishing No. 1 in Southern California is another big accomplishment for me. SoCal has some of the best football in the country, I hope schools will recognize that and continue to recruit my teammates and I,” he said.

One highlight from the year for Bush was his game-saving tackle at the two-yard line against College of the Canyons to preserve a 24-21 Cerritos win.

Bush is currently mulling offers from Bowling Green University, Marshall University and the University of Rhode Island. He is hoping for more offers in the month of December.

On the other side of the ball, sophomore running back Kishawn Holmes was a unanimous choice for first-team honors.

“I was running and my line was blocking that’s what that means. My coaches were calling good plays and other coaches saw what was taking place,” he said.

Holmes finished the season as the state’s leading rusher with 1,120 rushing yards, while rushing over the century mark six times this season. He also finished second in all-time rushing in Cerritos history behind Andre Wooten in the 1986-87 season.

Despite wanting to reach the 200-yard milestone in one game, Holmes finished with a career-high 185 yards in four games this season.

“Like the Golden West game, if you go off of penalties, I ran for over 200 yards. It’s just what got recorded down, everything just got called back,” Holmes said with a smile. “I still went over 1,000 yards and that’s all that matters.”

To put his numbers more in perspective, Holmes did not find the end zone on the ground until his sixth game of the season. Yet, he finished fifth in the state with 11 touchdowns.

“It was the sixth game? I just know once conference play hit I had to go savage mode. I didn’t even know I didn’t score until the sixth game,” Holmes said.

He is currently looking over offers from different schools, so he has yet to make a decision regarding his further education.

Joining Holmes on the first-team All Conference was sophomore offensive lineman Anthony Cerrillo.

Aside from Cerrillo, sophomore center Daniel Alanouf, sophomore offensive lineman Jason Sitala and sophomore guard Eric Golston were honored with second-team honors.

Holmes couldn’t be more thankful for his offensive line.

“[Those] boys are amazing. I don’t know what I would do without them. We all started off slow and rocky and for them to make first and second team; they’re all first-team to me.

“How can [any of them] be named to the second-team and I’m the leading rusher in the state? Yeah, they’re all first-team to me,” he added.

The Falcons had three defensive players named to the first-team All Conference; freshman defensive tackle PJ Naufahu, sophomore strong safety Elijah Walker and sophomore cornerback Brandon Ezell.

In addition to the first-team selections, Cerritos had five additional players be named to the second-team; freshman defensive ends John Collins and Siupeli Finau, freshman cornerback Darien Cornay, sophomore linebacker Daniel Moore and sophomore safety Tyler Rios.

Bush feels the defense of the Falcons was one of the best in recent memory and it was because the team gave its all every time on the field.

“The defense had a great overall season finishing No. 1 in the conference. We really took pride in playing 110 percent every time stepped on the field,” he said.

For the second consecutive year, sophomore tight end Elijah Rogers was named to the conference’s second-team. Joining him was the freshman wide receiver duo of Stacy Chukwumezie and Jacob Gasser.

Sophomore kicker Adrian Saldana was rewarded for his stellar season with a second-team All Conference selection.

After much criticism, Oregon State transfer quarterback Nick Mitchell was named the second-team as well.