NORWALK – The 2022 Long Beach City College football season came to unceremonious end with a 35-28 loss at Cerritos College in the Western State Bowl on Saturday night.
The Vikings made their seventh postseason appearance over the last 11 seasons but had their five-game winning streak in bowl games snapped by the rival Falcons.
A late-game rally came up short for the Vikings on Saturday. Long Beach trailed 21-14 halftime and was able to tie up the ball game 21-21 with 6:38 to play in the third thanks to a 38-yard touchdown run by Jonathan Watson.
Cerritos (8-3) responded with a pair of TDs in the fourth quarter to take a commanding 35-21 advantage with seven minutes remaining.
LBCC took its next drive 62 yards over 8 plays and scored on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Qeanu Campbell-Caldwell to Bryce Jones to make it a one-score game at 35-28 with 4:47 left in the contest.
But the Falcons were able to run out the clock on its final drive, getting help from a pair of Long Beach penalties that resulted in automatic first downs. Cerritos took home the Western State Bowl championship trophy as well as the Crosstown Cup, the perpetual trophy awarded to the winner of the rivalry game.
Long Beach outgained Cerritos on the offensive side of the ball, totaling 423 yards compared to the Falcons' 357. Despite the loss, Campbell-Caldwell had one of his finest games of the season as he completed 23 of 34 passes for 280 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Trennel Ridgely hauled in 6 receptions for 94 yards with a touchdown while Watson closed out his LBCC career rushing for 102 yards on 22 carries with a TD.
Austin Bressler and Jamarlo Campbell both had 10 tackles each to lead the Vikings on defense.
LBCC, under head coach Brett Peabody, closed out the season with a 5-6 overall record and were fourth in the National Northern Conference with a 2-3 mark.
