The regular season has ended. But, the playoffs await for the Cerritos College football team on Saturday against Santa Barbara City College.
The Falcons finish the season with a 7-3 overall record and losing those three games by a total of 10 points.
“We beat ourselves all three of those games, we lost by 10 points in total,” Dante Foster, free safety, said.
Expectations were high priority to the season, as the team aimed for an undefeated season.
“Honestly, when the season began we expected to go undefeated. Obviously it’s disappointing losing three games but 7-3 is still nice and we see ourselves being successful, and I feel we accomplished that goal of being successful,” Garron Featherston, defensive tackle, said.
Reminiscing on the regular season, defensive coordinator Tom Caines mentioned key injuries early in the season.
Both sides of the ball withheld expectations of going undefeated.
“You look back at some of the injuries we’ve had, we opened up the first game on defense and lost our two starting corners and our fastest safety the first game, even offensively we lost some important guys,” he said.
Caines added, “We lost our top running back the second game. That’s in hindsight when you look back at all those injures to finish 7-3. Our three losses are by a combined 10 points, we lost two games by three and one by four. If we were healthy we could have easily gone 10-0.”
The Falcons are coming off a two-game winning streak and own a 4-1 record when playing at home.
Santa Barbara City College mirrors the exact same record as the Falcons but owns a 1-10-1 overall record when playing in bowl games.
Although the team has not played the Vaqueros (7-3) in over 30 years, the Falcons are confident enough to finish the season with a win.
“I feel confident, we have a really good team and really strong defense and a really good offense. We have to work harder to work better as a team and as a family,” Foster said.
According to the California Community College Regional State Football Poll, Cerritos College is ranked sixth in the National Divsion, while Santa Barbara City College is ranked fifth in the American Division.
Despite acquiring a bowl bid this season, the Falcons lose out in competing in the California Community College Athletic Association championship game on Nov. 29.
The Falcons host the Golden State Bowl game against the Vaqueros on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Falcon Stadium.
