The Cerritos College Falcons lost their home opener against the Ventura College Pirates 39-32 on Sept. 21.
Ventura was forced to punt on their first drive and Cerritos would capitalize on that as quarterback Evan Tomich threw a seven yard touchdown pass to his brother, wide receiver Owen Tomich.
Each team would score a touchdown on their next couple drives with the only mistake being a blocked extra point attempt by Cerritos.
The end of the first quarter had Ventura up by one point 14-13.
The second quarter had less action as both defenses were making stops, but Cerritos was able to score a touchdown as the Tomich connection continued.
Unfortunately, the Tomich connection was not able to score the two-point attempt.
Coming out of the first half the Falcons would be up 19-14.
Things were looking bright for Cerritos going into the second half.
Evan Tomich completed 14 passes on 18 attempts in the first half showing a good passing attack.
The Falcons offense seemed to be pretty efficient on third down, converting 43% of their attempts.
Cerritos’ defense was great on third downs as well due to Ventura only being able to convert 11% of their third downs.
It would be a different story in the second half for Cerritos with the Pirates controlling the rest of the game.
The first few drives after halftime for the Falcons were short due to penalties setting them back.
Ventura capitalized on the Falcons mistakes as they put points on the board taking the lead with a score of 30-19 with under 4 minutes left in the third quarter.
Cerritos continued to fight as they quickly answered back with a touchdown of their own making it a one-possession game at 30-25.
The Pirates made sure to stop any momentum the Falcons had with quarterback Daniel Duran’s 78-yard passing touchdown to wide receiver Silas Kemp.
Cerritos weren’t able to get much going to start the fourth quarter and it was looking rough after Evan Tomich’s deep pass was intercepted.
The defense for Cerritos forced Ventura to punt the ball the next drive but linebacker EJ Smith fumbled on the punt return giving the ball right back to the Pirates.
Ventura took more time off the clock and settled for a field goal extending their lead to 39-25.
“The game still has to go,” Smith said.
“We got out there, got a stop on defense held them to a field goal when they were already in field goal range, so that’s all we can ask for after something like that happens,” Smith added in regards to his fumble.
Cerritos’ next drive was a long one but they scored a touchdown making it a one-possession game once again with the score at 39-32.
With Cerritos not being able to get the onside kick the final score would be at 39-32.
Head Coach Dean Grosfeld stated after the game that the team needs to come together to achieve their goal of winning the conference.
Evan Tomich had this to say regarding the loss “We came out in the first half and did some really good things then in the second half, we came out a little bit slow.”
“The offense wasn’t working as fluidly as it should have,” Tomich added.
Cerritos will look to bounce back as they head to Orange Coast for their next game on Sept. 28.
