With a last-second chance to pull out a win, the Cerritos College football team came up short, 12-8 at San Diego Mesa College on Saturday night. The Falcons (1-1) will look to rebound in their home opener next Saturday at 6:00 p.m. when they play host to Ventura College.

Cerritos was given a last attempt at winning the game when SD Mesa punter Danny Valencia shanked the ball off the side of his foot, which allowed Cerritos to start their drive at the Olympians 15-yard line with 10 seconds remaining in the game. Freshman quarterback Evan Tomich (Mayfair HS) was incomplete with his first pass, while he was forced out of the pocket on the next play and tackled at the 10-yard line. Because Cerritos didn't have any timeouts, the clock ran out.

It was a tight defensive battle through the first three quarters with SD Mesa holding a slim lead. That lead increased to 5-0 when a punt left the Falcons deep in their own territory before getting tackled in the end zone for a sack.

Cerritos took an 8-5 lead in the fourth quarter when they once again faced with starting deep in their own zone. But this time, the offense was able to come up with big plays and drove 89 yards on seven plays in just 1:18. Two big plays were completed passes from Tomich to sophomore Gavin Porch (Los Alamitos HS) for a combined 43 yards. The touchdown came on a 33-yard strike to sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Blair (Downey HS). The Falcons converted on their two-point play when Tomich found sophomore wide receiver Chase Grosfeld (Los Alamitos HS). 

The Olympians came right back and regained the lead, which was aided by an unsportsmanlike penalty after a third down incompletion. The next play wound up in the end zone and turned out to be the game-winning points.

Tomich finished the night with 305 passing yards on 22-of-39 attempts, while Blair pulled in six passes for 128 yards.

Sophomore linebacker EJ Smith (Warren HS) led the defense with nine stops, two tackles for loss and broke up a pair of passes, with the duo of sophomores Caleb Nuhi-Yandall (Banning HS) and Adam Tomczyk (Los Alamitos HS/Utah State University) each finished with six tackles. Tomczyk also added two tackles for loss, a sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery and a quarterback hurry.

Photo courtesy of Brian Cable