The Cerritos Falcons matched up against the Mt. San Jacinto Eagles at home during a scrimmage to prepare themselves for the upcoming season.

Thursday night was a tough outing for the Falcons on the offensive side of the ball, but their defense was without a doubt, a bright spot.

The offense had a few big play opportunities that they failed to capitalize on.

The first drive of the scrimmage for the Falcons offense seemed destined to be an opening drive touchdown as they went straight down the field with the help of two 15-yard penalties that went in their favor.

At the one-yard line, the Falcons couldn’t put the ball in the endzone and even failed on the fourth down conversion as San Jacinto shut them down.

After this first drive, the Falcons struggled to gain any type of momentum on the offensive side of the ball for the rest of the scrimmage not scoring one touchdown.

Many miscues that included multiple dropped passes, holding and false start penalties that really hurt the Falcons.

The first-string offense was moving the ball decently to start but failed in key moments to score.

Head coach Dean Grosfeld feels confident that the offense will be ready for when the season officially starts on Sept. 2. “We’re ready.” Grosfeld says.

“Our offense is really young but we’re really talented,” Grosfeld said and assured the new players will be able to pick it up quickly.

“It’s hard in a scrimmage because we only play a quarter and then it’s just situations and stuff but like I told them, any time your defense can shut somebody out and not score on you, you’ll always have a chance,” Grosfeld added.

The defense seems to be the strongest part of the team, having an interception on a deep pass by defensive back Zedekiah Rodriguez-Brown and multiple sacks from the defensive back.

The defense was able to shut out San Jacinto for the one quarter they did play in the scrimmage and did a great job during the situational plays in the red zone.

Grosfeld commented, “We have a lot of talent on that side, great teams always play great on defense.”

“It’s not our expectation, it’s our standard,” Grosfeld added.

With the season less than a week away, the Falcons will need to get their offense up to speed quick.

It’s no surprise the Falcons set the bar high. Going back to last season the Falcons had an 8-3 record and went to the playoffs. They brought home the title of the Western State Bowl by defeating Long Beach City College 35-28.

Cerritos has won this Western State Bowl for the past four seasons in a row so they will definitely try and run it back again.

The Falcons are set to start the season off against Antelope Valley at home on Sept. 2 at 6 p.m.