From the first play to the last, the Cerritos College football team received an excellent effort on both sides of the ball, as they posted a 34-14 win over visiting College of the Canyons on Saturday. The win was the fourth in a row for the Falcons (4-1, 2-0) who will have a bye week next Saturday before they start the second half of the regular season. The team returns to action on October 11 in a 4:00 p.m. game against Bakersfield College. The four wins in a row is the longest streak for Cerritos since the won seven in a row during the 2021-22 seasons.

On the first play from scrimmage, freshman quarterback Jeremiah Calvin (Mayfair HS) hit a streaking Charles Clinton II (Long Beach Poly HS) down the sideline, where he raced for a 68-yard touchdown. The first quarter was a dominant performance for Cerritos, who opened up a 14-0 lead and looked to be on their way to another comfortable win.

The defense shut down the Cougars on their first drive, while the offense went on an 8-play, 55-yard drive that resulted in another touchdown. The big play on the drive was a shuffle pass from Calvin to running back Josh Cason (Long Beach Poly HS), who raced 35 yards for a first down. It was 3rd-and-10 when Calvin was chased out of the pocket, but spotted Cason, who took the short pass and raced into Canyons territory to keep the drive going. Five plays later, Cason concluded the drive with an eight-yard touchdown run.

The teams then traded punts on their next three series, and when the Cougars punted for a fourth time, the Falcons turned that into a 17-0 lead after a Jonathan Arreola (Mayfair HS) 35-yard field goal. The drive started with Calvin hitting Malachi Wright (Mayfair HS) for 23 yards, while a 29-yard reception by Saxon Va'a (Banning HS) got the ball down to the 11-yard line. The drive stalled and required Arreola to connect on his second field goal of the season in as many attempts.

But before the end of the half, Canyons scored 10 straight points to make it a close contest.

At the start of the third quarter, it appeared as though the Falcons would be getting the ball back after the defense stopped them on three straight play. However, a roughing the kicker against Cerritos gave Canyons life and they turned that into a field goal and a 17-13 game.

Canyons then tried an onside kick that was knocked out of bounds at midfield, giving the Falcons good field position. They then benefitted from an unnecessary roughness penalty to start the drive and eventually extended their lead when Calvin hit running back JoJo Apisala (Lakewood HS) out of the backfield for a nine-yard touchdown.

Arreola finished off the team's next drive with his second field goal of the night from 29 yards out and a 27-13 lead early in the fourth quarter.

The Cerritos defense, which had kept the Cougars in check for the better part of the game, turned things around on the next Canyons drive. After getting inside Falcons territory, Kellen Watts (Troy HS) stripped Isaiah Rameau of the ball, with Danny D. Washington (Buena Park HS) recivering the ball at the team's 23-yard line.

That allowed Cerritos to go on an 11-play, 77-yard drive that burned 6:07 off the clock. Faced with a third-and-eight at their own 39-yard line, Calvin fired a pass to Wright for nine yards that kept the drive moving. Cason (pictured left, with Tino Huckaby) capped off the drive with a three-yard touchdown run, his second of the night and had 51 total yards on the ground. Calvin finished the night 18-of-24 for 303 yards and two touchdowns. Clinton (6 catches, 118 yards) and Wright (6 catches, 91 yards) both had strong games. 

Canyons attempted one last drive to add to their scoring total, but the Cerritos defense continued to be up to the task. Linebacker Clarence Chaney (JSerra HS), who had seven tackles in the game, ended the game when he sacked new Cougars quarterback Braden Leudecker on the last play of the game.

Teammate Adrian Castro (La Serna HS) was all over the field and finished with 11 tackles, 1 1/2 tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry, while Chaney also posted 1 1/2 tackles for loss to go with his seven stops. Miles Merchant (Gahr HS) also had a strong game with his seven tackles, with Ezra Mueller (Norwalk HS) earning his six tackles in the secondary and on special teams.

Photos by Samuel Chacko