With less than eight minutes remaining in their season-opener against host Saddleback College on Saturday night, the Cerritos College football team was sitting comfortably with a 26-13 lead. However, a Gauchos touchdown with 4:01 left made the game interesting. And when Saddleback gained possession of the ball one last time, they were poised to score the winning touchdown. However, sophomore linebacker Keith Walker (Mayfair HS) stepped in front of a Johnny Stanton pass at the Falcons 2-yard line with :05 seconds remaining to secure the 26-20 victory.

Cerritos (1-0) will now travel to LeBard Stadium in Costa Mesa to take on Orange Coast College (0-1) in a 1:00 p.m. start next Saturday. The Pirates opened their season with a 41-16 loss to Chaffey College.

Sparking the Falcons on offense was the tandem of sophomore quarterback Jimmy Walker (Redlands HS) and sophomore wide receiver Dashawn Gordon (Los Alamitos HS/Northwest Oklahoma State University). The two paired up for a couple of highlight reel touchdowns, the first coming with :10 seconds left in the first half. With the game tied, 6-6, Walker tossed a high fading pass into the back corner of the end zone, where Gordon was able to pull the ball in for the go-ahead score.

Then, in the third quarter, they ran the same play, with Gordon pulling the ball down from over his back shoulder from 29 yards away for a 19-6 advantage. Walker completed the night going 19-for-34 for 280 yards and three touchdowns. Sophomore Stephon Smalls (Fitzgerald, GA HS) added his own acrobatic catch in the second quarter when he came up on the receiving end of a 51-yard touchdown, with three other players looking to intercept the ball.

Defensively, the Falcons were aggressive, as they forced four of the eight Gauchos fumbles and also picked off three passes. Although Saddleback finished with 220 yards on the ground, they forced them into 18 third down situations on the night and shut down 12 of them.

Sophomore linebacker Michael Hannifin (San Pedro HS) posted 12 tackles in the win and forced a fumble, with Walker finishing with seven stops to go along with his game-saving interception. The team's deep linebacking crew all made contributions in the win, while the secondary used their speed to limit the Gaughos to 152 passing yards, with 64 of those yards coming on the final drive.

A week before the start of the season, two of their starting offensive linemen went down with injuries, but did a stellar job giving Walker time to pass. Sophomore De'Jai Whitaker (Santa Monica HS) led all receivers with seven catches for 104 yards. On the ground, freshmen Jason Floyd (Lakewood HS) and LaMarr Crowder (Cerritos HS) accounted for 96 of the team's 126 rushing yards, while sophomore defensive tackle David Fangupo (Kealakehe, HI HS) came in on a short-yardage situation and scored the final touchdown from two yards out.