A heavily-penalized contest ensued on Saturday Sept. 15 at Falcon Stadium, with the no. 1 team in the nation, the Mount San Antonio Mounties coming away with a 20-8 victory over the Cerritos College Falcons.
There were 340 total yards in infractions that were handed out to both teams on Saturday night.
Falcons quarterback Morgan Fennell, recorded 13-of-33 completions for 180 yards and a TD with 1 interception.
After the game, Fennell commented that, “It wasn’t the defense of Mt. SAC; it was a total team (Cerritos) effort.”
Mt SAC’s defense held the Falcons offense to just 204 yards on the night.
The biggest gains for the Falcons were the numerous penalties against the Mounties which moved the ball all night for the somber Cerritos offensive unit.
After the game, Falcons head coach Frank Mazzotta shared his thoughts on the contest.
“My God, that’s pathetic on both sides…it’s a (expletive) game when you have that (expletive) going on,” Mazzotta said.
Mazzotta had to reflect back nearly thirty years to when he recalled a similar game, “Had that (lots of penalties) one time back in the 80’s with Fullerton and we were both playing in the championship at the end of the year…we had 36 penalties in the game, how do you play a championship game with that many penalties.”
Offensive line coach J.T. Niumata of Mt. SAC said of the Cerritos College defensive unit, “they were good up front…they’re big boys up front…they had a good solid defensive line.”
At one point, Cerritos held the Mounties after Mt. SAC pulled their field goal unit off the field and opting to go for it on 4th and 1 near the Falcon goal line.
Asked how he felt about going for it near the goal line and being stopped, Coach Niumata of Mt. SAC said, “I don’t know how I feel, it’s the game [and] I let the coach (Mt. SAC Head Coach Robert Jastrab) make the call…my job is to make sure we do what he says.”
Asked if he ever saw so many penalties in his life, Niumata simply stated, “no I have not.”
Cerritos defense held and handed the ball to the Falcon offense.
Mazzotta said of the effort, “Our defense played well again. They’re (MT SAC) not stupid. They’re up two touchdowns, that’s not a bad call (going for it), we (Cerritos) still have 98 yards to go and we’re not moving the ball, why not (go for it)?”
Mt. SAC amassed 484 yards total offense, but the Falcon defense did sack Mounties’ quarterback Nick Montana five times on the night.
Cerritos’ sophomore linebacker Chass Glaspie led the Falcons with 12 tackles.
Teammate, sophomore Theodore Chambers added 4 tackles, as well as an assist on another.
Chambers commented about the Cerritos defensive hold of Mt. Sac near the goal line, “Yeah, I got some of that; I had to hop up in there.”
About the penalties, Chambers added, “I’ve never seen so many penalties; especially with the interception I had… they [officials] called it back.”
With two weeks off before their next contest against Pasadena City College, he replied that he was going to, “Train, train.”
“All you got to do is work hard, work hard as a team and come back against Pasadena,” Chambers quipped as he walked off the field to a well-deserved shower.
Commenting on his team’s effort, Montana said, “It was good, I thought we missed some opportunities with all the penalties, but I liked what we were doing offensively, we kept moving the ball.”
Montana added about the defensive effort against the Falcons, “Defense had an awesome game!”
Concerning his teams’ high ranking in both the state and national polls, Montana continued to speak positively, saying ”You gotta love it. Right now we gotta keep coming out every week…it doesn’t mean anything, we still have a lot of games ahead of us.”
Asked if he thinks he’ll see Cerritos again this season (in the playoffs), Montana replied, “There’s a very good chance, they’re a great team, so, you never know.”
About his personal status, Montana laughed, continuing to say, ”Yeah, I am single.”
The Falcons have a very welcome bye this week before traveling up the 110 Freeway to play at Pasadena City College on Saturday Sept. 29 at 6:00 PM.
