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.

The week off came when Canyons cancelled its game with Cerritos, and Falcons’ linebacker John Lopez said that may have affected the team.

“It was like a first game all over again.”

He added that the Falcons (2-0) came together in the second half.

“We hung in there, and showed (everyone) who the better team was.”

In the second quarter, with Fullerton (2-1) leading 7-6, the Hornets scored a touchdown on a fake play from field goal formation, then added a field goal to lead, 15-7 at halftime.

Cerritos head coach Frank Mazzotta said, “I told the players, I don’t think that trick plays are going to beat us.”

The Falcons came out of their slumber in the second half behind Jermaine Whiten.

With 13:03 left in the third quarter, the freshman running back from Cerritos High School caught a screen pass from Mike Harrison and broke several tackles before outrunning everyone on the way to the end zone.

He also scored from 20 yards out 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.

Whiten, who finished the game with 70 yards rushing and four catches for 109 yards, 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.”

Whiten put the Falcons ahead to stay with his third touchdown of the game on a nine-yard run with 6:35 left in the fourth quarter.

Mazzotta said that the team was so wired up to play that “they’re running around like a bunch of goons. We didn’t look very well coached at times.

“I think that’s caused by being off and not hitting anybody.”

Josh Herrera led the Falcons with 131 yards rushing, and Harrison completed 21 passes out of 33 attempts for 288 yards and two touchdowns.

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

The Rustlers (1-2) are coming off of a 44-17 loss to Pasadena. One week earlier, they ended a 31 game losing streak with a 14-3 win over L.A. Valley.

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.