The Cerritos College Falcons football team loses another game in the final seconds of the fourth quarter on the road against Riverside City College Tigers 40 – 38 and a fight broke out on the field after the final whistle on Nov. 6.
Riverside scored a rushing touchdown on their first offensive possession on a first and goal on the 1-yard line on a 94-yard drive for the Tigers putting them up early in this ball game 7 – 0 after their point after an attempt on the kick was good.
The Falcons scored on their first offensive drive on a 35-yard touchdown pass thrown by Freshman quarterback No. 11 Cade McConnell who connected with Sophomore wide receiver No. 10 Bailey Torres on a 10-play, 75-yard drive.
On Riverside’s first possession in the third quarter, the Tigers drove 67-yards to score another touchdown putting them ahead of the Falcons 24 – 21 after Cerritos failed to score on their opening drive to start the 2nd half.
Freshman kicker No. 19 Moz Bojorquez went on to kick the field goal for Cerritos putting three points on the board making it 31 – 24 to cut the large deficit.
But the Tigers weren’t done yet as they drove another 81-yards on to score a rushing touchdown that put Riverside up 37 – 24 early in the fourth quarter.
Things weren’t looking so good for the Falcons at that point.
The Falcons defense responded as Sophomore defensive-back No. 5 Bijon Harris made the tackle stopping the Tigers on third down forcing Riverside to punt after a three-and-out drive.
The most crucial play of this game came on a 4th and 13, Simpson connected with Sophomore wide receiver DeJour Smith No. 3, Smith broke a tackle and ran after the catch for 36-yards where he had originally scored if it weren’t for his helmet being ripped off on the play on the 7-yard line.
Smith recalls teammates telling him to “make a play”. “Everybody just looked at me and was like make a play and I just made a play.” on Smith’s clutch catch on 4th and 13 that gave the Falcons the first down.
Simpson would go on to find Freshman wide receiver No. 7, Luca Caldarella open in the endzone for the 7-yard game-tying touchdown catch.
The Falcon’s point-after attempt was successful putting them up by 38-37 with a minute left in the 4th quarter.
The most controversial event in this ball game occurred after Riverside converted on fourth and sixth on a 34-yard pass caught by a Tigers wide receiver on the Cerritos 19-yard line. The receiver made the catch picking up the first down with nineteen seconds left on the game clock as the clock ran down to thirteen seconds and stopped although the catch was made in bounds with no timeouts remaining from both teams.
Freshman quarterback No. 5 Jordan Simpson believed the officials at the time were nervous when finalizing a call on the spike that was halted by officials. “From my view on the sideline, it was sad cause it was out of my control, nothing I could do about it, but it’ll only make us better,” said Simpson.
A wide receiver for the Tigers then limped off the field and substituted for another player which should’ve kept the clock running or forced the Tigers to take an injury timeout causing a ten-second runoff on a clock that should have been played with less than thirteen seconds left.
Whistles were blown as players and coaches were told to get back to the sideline by officials who then decided to leave six seconds on the game clock.
Riverside quickly sent out the field goal unit to kick the game-winner with six seconds left on the game clock that ran down on the officials’ whistle that blew as the Tigers got set. The kick was up and good for 36-yards for the Tigers.
The Riverside Tigers cleared out to take to the field to celebrate near the Falcons sideline.
Both teams confronted each other midfield on what looked to be several disputes going on. Coaches from both sides pulled their players back to prevent fighting however the commotion was too large to contain as it took a couple of minutes to settle all the players down.
Punches were thrown and foul language was exchanged until players were escorted back to their lockers and busses.
The Falcons moved to a 2 – 2 record in their conference in hopes to rebound again on the road next week.
Cerritos will play away at Mt. San Antonio Sat. Nov. 13 at 1 p.m.
