It may have been the one-week layoff, yet the Cerritos College football team overcame a sluggish first half to defeat Fullerton College, 26-23 Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.

Running back Jermaine Whiten scored three touchdowns, including a nine-yard run with 6:35 left in the game to put the Falcons (2-0) ahead to stay.

Whiten also scored twice in the third quarter.

With 13:03 left in the quarter, he caught a screen pass from Mike Harrison and broke several tackles before outrunning everyone on the way to the end zone.

Whiten also scored on a 20-yard run when he ran up the middle, broke away from a would-be tackler and ran to his left for the touchdown to give Cerritos a 20-15 lead.

He said that being able to break tackles is the result of learning it in practice.

“If you learn all the drills in practice, breaking tackles, lowering your shoulders, getting under the man, running him over, you’re going to do things like that.

“After a while, I just figured, all we had to do was do our job, and they couldn’t stop us.”

The Falcons return home Saturday to face Golden West College. Game time is 7 p.m.

Cerritos 7 0 13 6 – 26Fullerton 6 9 6 8 – 23

Scoring summary:1st quarter:13:03 FUL Justin Jones 13 yd. pass from Brian Bartczak (kick failed)2:57 CER Andrew Harris 6 yd. pass from Mike Harrison (Adam Sonntag kick)

2nd quarter:10:10 FUL Jeff Weber 33 yd. pass from Travis Blood on fake field goal attempt (pass failed)8:50 FUL Scott Lambert 40 yd. field goal

3rd quarter:13:03 CER Jermaine Whiten 66 yd. pass from Harrison (pass failed)4:06 CER Whiten 20 yd. run (Sonntag kick)

4th quarter:13:27 FUL Terrance Moore 13 yd. pass from Bartczak (Jones pass from Bartczak)6:35 CER Whiten 9 yd. run (kick failed)

RUSHING: Cerritos-Josh Herrera 19-131 yards; Jermaine Whiten 11-70; Jeremy Bulrice 2-5; Mike harrison 8-1. Fullerton-Marquis Colvin 10-24; Ron Morris 2-23; Jacob Palmer 1-23; Joey de los Reyes 1-11; Brian Bartczak 5-9; Jef Mathison 1-1.

PASSING: Cerritos-Mike Harrison 21-33-1-288. Fullerton-Brian Bartczak 10-27-2-148; Ron Morris 0-1-0-0; Travis Blood 1-1-0-33; Michael Whiddon 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING: Cerritos-Andrew Harris 7-79 yards; Jermaine Whiten 4-109; Chris Chatman 4-36; Fausto Gonzalez 2-34; Javier Martinez 1-11; Jason McMillan 1-10; Jeremy Bulrice 1-8; Josh Herrera 1-1. Fullerton-Jeff Weber 3-55; Justin Jones 3-16; Terrance Moore 2-43; Darryl Parker 1-60; Brandon Williams 1-4; Greg Woodard 1-3.

INTERCEPTIONS: Cerritos-Charles Allgood 2-38 yards. Fullerton-John Guydon 1-0.

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