With any hopes of a post-season game staring them in the face, the Cerritos College football team held off visiting College of the Canyons, 24-21 in a crucial Northern League game. The win by the Falcons (4-4, 2-1) keeps them in the hunt for a league championship or a bowl game with two regular season games remaining. The team is currently tied for second place with Bakersfield (6-2, 2-1) and trail Ventura College (6-2, 3-0), who they host in their final game. Cerritos will travel to Moorpark College (3-5, 1-2) next Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. game.

On the final drive of the game, the Cougars (3-5, 1-2) took over possession at their own 39-yard line with 2:20 on the clock and no timeouts. Quarterback Matt Moore converted a third down with a seven-yard run and followed that with a 13-yard completion to Marquise Brown. Most importantly, sophomore cornerback Brandon Ezell (Los Alamitos HS) tackled Brown inbound to keep the clock moving.

With the clock running out, Moore was forced out of the pocket and tackled for a two-yard loss by sophomore linebacker Daniel Moore (Long Beach Wilson HS) and freshman defensive tackle Dillon Faamatu (Norwalk HS), which set un a fourth down. Once again, they were able to tackle Moore before he could go out of bounds. On the final play, Moore connected with Tylan McBride, who was pulled down at the two-yard line by sophomore linebacker Alex Bush (La Habra HS) as the clock expired.

The Falcons led, 14-0 in the second quarter, primarily on the running of sophomore Kishawn Holmes (Vista Murrieta HS). On the team's opening drive, Holmes accounted for 58 of the 80 yards, which he capped off with a 2-yard touchdown run. Holmes touched the ball five times on the team's second touchdown early in the quarter, including a pair of third-down conversions. The series concluded with Holmes busting off left tackle for a seven-yard TD.

After Canyons tied the game with touchdowns on their next two drives, Cerritos took a 17-14 lead into halftime, thanks to a 31-yard field goal by sophomore Adrian Saldana (Walnut HS), which included a pair of completions by sophomore quarterback Nick Mitchell (Mount Si, WA HS/Oregon State University) to freshman wide receiver Jacob Gasser (Los Alamitos HS) for a combined 33 yards.

What turned out to be the game-winning touchdown came late in the third quarter when Mitchell found sophomore tight end Elijah Rogers (East Jefferson, LA HS) in the end zone from 28 yards out. On the play, Mitchell rolled out and Rogers (pictured, left) was able to go up and pull down the pass for the touchdown. The drive was aided by a roughing the passer penalty against the Cougars, as the teams were whistled a combined 21 times for 219 yards on the night.

Holmes picked up 105 of his 114 yards on the ground in the first half, while Mitchell completed 18-of-23 passes for 180 yards, with freshman Stacy Chukwumezie (Downey HS) hauling in seven passes for 75 yards. Moore threw for 349 yards and three touchdowns, but was chased all over the field in the second half and was sacked four times. Sophomore Miles Henry-Davis (Olympus, UT HS) and Siupeli Finau (Dominguez HS) each had 1 1/2 quarterback sacks, with Bush accounting for three of the team's seven quarterback hurries and led the team with nine tackles.

Sophomore Elijah Walker (Cabrillo HS) tied with eight tackles, while the trio of Ezell, Finau and freshman Darien Cornay (Los Alamitos HS) all had seven stops.

Photos by Daryl Peterson