The Cerritos College Falcons faced the Long Beach City College Vikings on Oct. 5 with the Vikings getting the win over the Falcons in double overtime.
The Falcons were coming off their first conference victory, looking to get their second against the Vikings, but their miscues would cost them the game.
On the first scoring drive, which was a rushing touchdown by Cerritos College quarterback Evan Tomich, the extra point would be missed which would be a recurring thing for Cerritos.
Cerritos kicker, Christian Guerra, would miss a total of two extra points and one field goal.
Miscues would also come in the passing game as Evan Tomich would only complete nine passes on 33 attempts for 103 yards with two interceptions.
“We got to get the quarterback to play better,” Head Coach of the Cerritos Falcons Dean Grosfeld, said.
With all these issues happening the Falcons were still in the game most of the time.
Their running game would dominate this game as Cerritos finished with a total of 297 rushing yards compared to Long Beach City’s 86 rushing yards.
Falcons running back, Michael Hayes, would lead the game in rushing yards with 161 yards, averaging nearly six yards a carry and scoring a touchdown.
Hayes gave kudos to his offensive line for the performance he had.
“They literally opened up a crease and all I needed was a crease, they did their job this week,” Hayes said.
Hayes plans to keep his O-line fed so they can continue performing well.
At halftime Cerritos would have the score tied at 14-14.
They would score on their first drive coming out of halftime on a fake punt with linebacker Caleb Nuhi-Yandall, running 72 yards for a touchdown.
“We’ve been working on it the whole time,” Grosfeld said regarding the fake punt, “It’s just the it’s it’s all about timing and it worked out perfect.”
In the fourth quarter, the Falcons had the biggest lead of the game with running back Cheo Medina, scoring a 19-yard rushing touchdown making the score 27-17.
The defense played a good game as well forcing two fumbles, an interception and sacking Vikings quarterback, Jett Peddy, five times.
This performance would not be enough to stop the Vikings as they scored 10 straight unanswered points heading into overtime.
Grosfeld expressed that the defense has to finish the game when they are given the chance.
“We got a two-point lead with six minutes to play, they got to finish the game,” Grosfeld added.
Each team would score a field goal on their first possession in overtime, but Long Beach City would score the first touchdown and successful two-point conversion.
“We have to be able to play the entirety of the game,” Defensive Coordinator/Associate Head Coach Fred Fimbres, said.
“We play 60 minutes, we take it to overtime and those are untimed downs, but we got to be able to play however many more minutes is required to win the game and we didn’t quite get it done today, but we’ll be better,” Fimbres finished.
The game ended on an interception thrown by Evan Tomich.
The Falcons will host Mt. San Antonio on Oct. 19 looking to get another conference win.
