A physical conference matchup between two top 10 teams in the state led to a Golden West College Rustlers 27-19 victory over the Cerritos College Falcons in a battle for first place atop the National Central League in 3C2A.
“We get two field goals when we should have had touchdowns and they’re scoring touchdowns instead of kicking field goals,” Cerritos head coach Dean Grosfeld said. “When it’s an eight point game, that’s the difference.”
Grosfeld noted that the style of play of the Rustlers’ game could have taken his team out of their own.
There were a total of 13 penalties called in the game with Golden West committing eight of them.
“I think they got us out of our game a little bit, but we just choked it off,” Grosfeld added.
The first quarter saw the game tied at six points as both teams mirrored each other scoring a touchdown on each of its first drives and failed its extra point attempts.
The Falcons trailed the game from the second quarter after Rustlers defensive back Nigel Mills forced a fumble that set up its offense for a successful TD drive.
The Rustlers scored again before the half with 28 seconds left on the clock after taking possession on a failed fourth down attempt by Cerritos.
Cerritos completed five of its six fourth down conversions but were unsuccessful moving the ball forward with a 31% efficiency on third down conversions.
With the Falcons receiving the ball at the half, a successful drive to the Golden West 12-yard line was limited to the first of kicker Jonathan Arreola’s two field goals for the game.
Golden West quarterback Kauna’oa Kamakawiwo’ole completed 23 of 29 pass attempts for 315 yards and three touchdowns.
Meanwhile Cerritos QB Jeremiah Calvin converted 27 of his 36 attempts for 279 yards, connecting with wide receiver Saxson Va’a for two touchdowns.
Golden West head coach Nick Mitchell praised the Cerritos coaching staff and said, “we approached it like we were facing the best team that we faced this far, which was true.”
“They do a great job scheming and fortunately we were able to hang in there. They did a great job of shutting down our offense in the second half, but our defense was able to get enough stops to pull out the win,” Mitchell said.
Defensively, the Falcons limited the Rustlers to one TD in the second half as linebacker Rocky Jack recorded 14 tackles with two tackles for loss, a broken up pass and a quarterback hurry for the game.
Linebacker Clarence Chaney also recorded 10 tackles.
Cerritos’ comeback fell short while Grosfeld attributed the loss to the coaches and said he’d be shocked if his team didn’t respond following this game.
Golden West remains undefeated this season as Cerritos’ is now 4-1 in conference play and 6-2 on the season with its final two games having playoff implications.
The Falcons will play its final home game on Nov. 1 against yet another undefeated conference opponent in Fullerton College before concluding the regular season on Nov. 8 at East Los Angeles College.
