All is well again with the Cerritos College football team.

After finishing the regular season by losing two straight games and three out of its last five, Cerritos came out of its funk with a 39-28 victory over Allan Hancock College Saturday in the Strawberry Bowl at Falcon Stadium.

Falcons’ offensive guard Jason Lehman said, “We needed this one, to get our confidence back and get our program rolling again.

“A win like this will get a lot of new recruits here for next year and keep Cerritos on a winning tradition.”

Wide receiver Chris Chatman, who caught touchdown passes of 59 and 58 yards, said, “I’m glad we won this game.

“We lost two in a row, and it’s a lot off of my shoulders, (and) off of everybody’s shoulders.”

Quarterback Glenn DeBerg, whose uncle is former NFL quarterback Steve DeBerg, and linebacker John Lopez (14 tackles) were selected as the most valuable players for the game.

DeBerg, making only his second start for the Falcons (7-4), completed 21 out of 36 pass attempts for 272 yards and three touchdowns, including completions of 59 and 58 yards to Chatman in the third quarter.

Cerritos head coach Frank Mazzotta said, “I really thought DeBerg stood in there tonight and really did a nice job.

“What we didn’t get last week (against Riverside) is, that all the other players played well around him.”

DeBerg started the game two weeks earlier at Riverside in place of Mike Harrison, who suffered an injury to his thumb against Pasadena, and passed for 85 yards and two interceptions in a 17-7 loss.

He said, “I’m more comfortable this time. We played better as a group.”

He also gave credit to the offensive line, saying that it “stepped it up big time.”

Lopez said that the team got “lackadasical at the end, but we still pulled it through.

“We had to play hard on defense since we didn’t have our starting quarterback (Harrison) in this game.”

The Falcons, who came into the game allowing a total of 1,813 yards rushing, including 432 to Pasadena and 257 to Riverside, held the Bulldogs (7-4) to 88 yards on 35 attempts.

Mazzotta said, “That was the best part of the whole thing, to end with a win, because we haven’t looked real good the past couple of weeks.

“We haven’t been stopping the run.

“But we did tonight, and they (Hancock) are a good running team.”

The Game

After Hancock’s Casey Miranda returned a punt 16 yards to the Cerritos 38-yard line in the second quarter, Bulldogs’ wide receiver Jermaine Moore caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Ray Medina to go ahead, 13-7.

With a pair of field goals by Adam Sonntag, the Falcons tied the game at halftime, 13-13.

On the Falcons’ second play from scrimmage in the second half, Chatman caught the first of his two touchdown passes from DeBerg.

Chatman said, “I just beat the guy off the ball.

“Right off the start I was going to be open.”

After the Cerritos defense held and forced Hancock to punt, the Falcons had first down on their own 28.

Josh Herrera then scored on a breakaway run for 72 yards to put Cerritos ahead, 26-13.

The Falcons went ahead, 32-13 on Chatman’s second touchdown catch from DeBerg.

Herrera scored his second touchdown on an 8-yard run in the fourth quarter to put Cerritos ahead, 39-21, and tied a bowl record.

Hancock then came back on the next series on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Medina to Moore with 4:27 remaining in the game, cutting the Cerritos lead to 39-28.

Medina passed for four touchdowns in the game, setting a new Strawberry Bowl record.

Moore had three of those touchdown passes, also a bowl record.

The Bulldogs attempted an onside kick, but the ball was recovered by the Falcons, who held on to the ball and ran out the clock.

Cerritos rushed for 226 yards in the game, led by Herrera with 125 and Jermaine Whiten with 114.

Falcons’ defensive end Chris Eagen, who recorded three quarterback sacks in the game, said, “We all stood up, got it together and pulled this victory through, big time.

“We showed that Cerritos is a good all-around program, and always will be.”

The win was the Falcons’ sixth in as many Strawberry Bowl appearances, and fourth in a row.

Honors

Safety Charles Allgood was named Co-Defensive Player of the Year (along with Donte Nicholson of Mt. San Antonio College) in the Mission Conference Northern Division.

Allgood was a unanimous selection to the conference’s first team defense.

Also named to the team were Lopez, Eagen and linebacker Philip Perry.

Chatman and Harrison were named to the conference’s first team on offense, with guard Anthony Guerrero, tight end Fausto Gonzalez, punter Scott Mackay and tackle Jake Chavira, who was a unanimous selection.

Chatman was also named on the second team defense as a kickoff returner.

Herrera, Whiten and Lehman made the second team on offense.

Scoring summary:

1st quarter:7:18 AHC Jermaine Moore 54 yd. pass from Ray Medina (Steve Sarubbi kick)4:25 CER Randy Raphiel 27 yd. pass from Glenn DeBerg (Adam Sonntag kick)

2nd quarter:11:22 AHC Moore 38 yd. pass from Medina (snap fumbled on conversion)5:22 CER Sonntag 44 yd. field goal:18 CER Sonntag 38 yd. field goal

3rd quarter:14:15 CER Chris Chatman 59 yd. pass from DeBerg (Sonntag kick)12:08 CER Josh Herrera 72 yd. run (kick failed)5:17 CER Chatman 58 yd. pass from DeBerg (pass failed)2:56 AHC Robert Matheny 36 yd. pass from Medina (Michael Gaddy run)

4th quarter:5:27 CER Josh Herrera 8 yd. run (Sonntag kick)4:27 AHC Moore 31 yd. pass from Medina (Sarubbi kick)

RUSHING: Hancock-Michael Gaddy 10-49 yards; Robert Matheny 12-42; Shawn Davis 5-23; Jermaine Moore 1-21; Ray Medina 7-(-47). Cerritos-Josh Herrera 17-125; Jermaine Whiten 17-114; Jeremy Bulrice 1-11; Glenn DeBerg 4-(-24).

PASSING: Hancock-Ray Medina 11-19-0-286; Jermaine Moore 0-1-0-0. Cerritos-Glenn DeBerg 21-36-1-272.

RECEIVING: Hancock-Jermaine Moore 5-142 yards; Collin Vidal 2-65; Chad Clark 2-32; Robert Matheny 1-36; Michael Gaddy 1-4. Cerritos-Randy Raphiel 7-98; Chris Chatman 5-135; Josh Herrera 4-7; Jermaine Whiten 3-16; Scott Bajza 1-11; Javier Martinez 1-5.

PUNTING: Hancock-Rob Coleman 8-296 yards. Cerritos- Scott Mackey 6-207.

PUNT RETURNS: Hancock-Casey Miranda 3-16.

KICKOFF RETURNS: Hancock-Jermaine Moore 6-120 yards; Casey Miranda 1-38. Cerritos-Jermaine Whiten 3-32; Chris Chatman 1-26.

INTERCEPTION RETURNS: Hancock-Danny Sanchez 1-0.