Cerritos College linebacker David Lopez (Garfield High School grad) points across the line during last Saturday's game with East L.A. Cerritos won, 49-7 (Photo by marinmedia.org)
By RON GUILD, Sports Editor
Story Published: Sep 9, 2009 at 4:14 PM PDT
As the final score indicated, Cerritos College is much further along than East L.A. at this stage of the football season.
Yet, while the 49-7 outcome indicates the Falcons could be close to midseason form, the East L.A. coaching staff saw some encouraging signs, especially in the second half.
After Cerritos scored on its first five possessions and led, 49-0, the Huskies settled down and stopped giving up so many big plays in the second half. While it doesn’t sound like much, the 49 points is an improvement over a year ago when Cerritos torched them for 65 points, 37 in the opening period.
“Once we got our young men to to be smart, line up correctly and execute the plays, we started to improve,” ELAC coach Lynn Cain said. “We made a lot of mistakes early on, which Cerritos capitalized on. The good thing is that we kept playing. In the second half, I thought we moved the ball pretty well.”
Cerritos, which hosts Santa Monica at 7 p.m. Saturday, got a big game from quarterback Chris Morales, who completed 16 of 21 passes for 262 yards and four touchdowns. It took him only 52 seconds to get the Falcons on the scoreboard, doing it on a two-yard pass to Joshua Robbins.
The Falcons amassed 667 yards of offense, 317 coming on the ground.
Marshawn Friloux (Bellflower High School) had a 63-yard scoring run for the Falcons. He had 70 yards on just two carries.
Jason Davis had 93 yards on 12 carries and scored once.
B.J. Denker, a freshman from North Torrance, completed five of eight passes for 88 yards in relief of Morales.
Former Garfield High standout David Lopez had seven tackles, including 2.5 for loss, a forced fumble, a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry from his spot at linebacker.
East L.A., which hosts Glendale at 6 p.m. Saturday, had some solid performances.
Quarterback Pedro Velasquez completed 17 of 34 for 215 yards. Jorge Valdovinos (Huntington Park) had five catches for 46 yards and Michael Allen had four for 66. Aubrey Haynes scored the touchdown on a three-yard run late in the game.
Jeremie Simmons led the ground attack with 37 yards on 10 carries. Marquel Booker had 21 yards on six carries before spraining an ankle in the second quarter.
Linebackers Steven Torres (Garfield) and Norman Ceja and tackle Chris McCoy (Bell Gardens) played well defensively for the Huskies. Torres had five solo tackles, four assists and an interception return of 30 yards.
Glendale, which opened with a 51-29 win over West L.A., scored 75 points on East L.A. a year ago.
