Over the last two seasons, the Cerritos College football team hasn't faced Mt. San Antonio College until the Southern California Championship Game. But on Saturday, the two teams met up in a regular season game at Falcon Stadium. Just like in the two SoCal championship games, the Mounties came out on top, as they posted a 20-8 win, which dropped the Falcons to 1-2 on the season. After a bye week, Cerritos will travel to Pasadena City College for a 6:00 p.m. game.
Despite what appeared to be a close game, the Mounties (3-0) showed dominance at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Had it not been for their inability to keep hurting themselves with penalties (22 for 225 yards), the score could have been a little more lopsided. In fact, Mt. SAC's 225 penalty yards were more than the total offense for the Falcons, who finished with 204 on the night.
However, Cerritos did have a chance to get close to pulling off the win after driving down to the Mt. San Antonio 13-yard line with 12:15 left in the fourth quarter. A 60-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Morgan Fennell (Long Beach Poly HS) to sophomore wide receiver Garion Manning (Long Beach Wilson HS) moved the ball to the Mountie 18-yard line after Manning broke out of a tackle by Geoffrey Vaughns and was pulled down by Elisha Henry before he could reach the end zone. Two plays later, Mt. SAC was called for pass interference in the end zone, but the Falcons were flagged for an unsportsmanlike call. But the drive would end when Manning was stripped of the ball on an end around and Julian Gener recovered the ball at the Mt. SAC 5-yard line.
Another drive later in the quarter ended with a turnover, as Fennell (13-for-33, 180 yards) was picked off in the end zone by Dorian Crawford with 2:27 left. Cerritos kept the drive alive on a fourth-and-1 call when they sent in defensive linemen Kyle Peko (La Habra HS), Ma'ataua Brown (Paramount HS) and David Moala (Serra HS) to block, which resulted in a first down.
The only drive that resulted in a touchdown came in the third quarter when Fennell connected with Manning (3 catches, 101 yards) from 29 yards out. The drive was helped out by a pair of Mt. SAC penalties, while Cerritos also struggled at helping out their opponent, as they were called for nine infractions for 115 yards.
The first half was a lopsided affair, but the Falcons were down, 10-0 despite being out-gained offensively, 279-20 and only ran 22 plays. Mt. San Antonio generated their offense on 45 plays and scored their first 10 points on a 30-yard Joseph Cejudo field goal and a 25-yard pass from Nick Montana (25-for-33, 320 yards) to Gerald Pickett. Cejudo added a 42-yard field goal in the third quarter, while Montana, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana, teamed up with Dontae Ingram for 63 yards on their first play of the second half.
Defensively, sophomore linebacker Chass Glaspie (Westchester HS) led the way with 12 tackles and a forced fumble, while sophomore defensive back Jordan Allen (Mater Dei HS) finished with 10 stops.
