With their bye last week, the Cerritos College football team spent the extra week working on fine-tuning their offense. The extra week seemed to have come at the right time, as the Falcons rolled up 522 yards in their 65-14 win over Pasadena City College at Robinson Field on Saturday. The win was the most points ever scored at Robinson Field and it was the most in their long history against the Lancers (0-5) since a 66-14 win in 1960. Cerritos (2-2) will look to build on their performance, as they face Palomar College at Escondido HS at 6:00 p.m. next Saturday.
The Falcons scored early and often against Pasadena City, and their drives all consisted of quick-strike plays, with six of their nine touchdown drives lasting 1:39 or less and four of them started in Lancer territory.
After sophomore quarterback Morgan Fennell (Long Beach Poly HS) opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 13-yard passing play to sophomore wide receiver Garion Manning (Long Beach Wilson HS), Cerritos struck again after sophomore linebacker Jordan Allen (Mater Dei HS) picked off Zeek Julien and returned the ball 37 yards. That set up a Marcos Torres (Gahr HS) 20-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead.
Early in the second quarter, Fennell (10-for-14, 194 yards, 4 TD) connected with sophomore wide receiver Silver Viafanua (Long Beach Millikan HS) for 26 yards, while a roughing the passer call on the play moved the ball to the Lancer three yard line. Freshman Dominique Small (Mayfair HS) finished the drive with a two-yard touchdown. It was a 24-0 lead with 7:05 left in the first half when Vaifanua caught a Rene Medina (St. John Bosco HS) pass, broke a tackle at the Pasadena City five-yard line and scored for a 15-yard touchdown. Freshman Ricky Carrigan, Jr. (Cabrillo HS) capped off the first half scoring with a 27-yard touchdown reception on a drive that lasted :29 seconds.
The big plays continued in the second half, with sophomore Robert Abeyta (Servite HS) using his strength to break away from Keyon Austin at the 40-yard line to score on a 61-yard touchdown pass. The drive went 65 yards on three plays and lasted just 1:22 for a 37-7 advantage. Fennell tossed his fourth touchdown pass to sophomore running back Donald Livingston (Savanna HS) from 22 yards out before Medina and sophomore Paul Lopez (St. Paul HS) handed the single-calling the remainder of the game.
As effective as the offense was (8-for-8 in the red zone), the defense was equally dominant, as they limited the Lancers to just 221 yards and pressured Julien and back-up quarterback Justin Posthuma. As a team, the Falcons finished with 14 tackles for loss, with freshman cornerback Domonique McGee (Serra HS) turning in a stellar game. Along with his game-high nine tackles, he added three tackles for loss and two pass break-ups, while freshman linebacker Joshua Callier (Warren HS) finished with seven tackles, two tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry.
The dominant win allowed many players to get in and make an impact, with Callier making the biggest noise. Additionally, freshman Travone Davis (Dominguez HS) contributed four tackles, a tackles for loss and an interception, with starting linebacker Chass Glaspie (Westchester HS) posting seven tackles. On offense, Lopez completed 3-of-5 passes for 58 yards, with 42 of them coming on his first play, a completion to freshman Donaven Gumbs (Norwalk HS), which set up a touchdown. Sophomore running back Carlton Callaway (Lawndale HS) showed his strength on several runs and finished the game with 33 yards on eight carries and scored a pair of touchdowns.
