Football: Long Beach can’t overcome big Cerritos first quarter, fall 52-34

The Long Beach City College football team scored a season-high 34 points, but couldn't come back from a 31-0 first-quarter deficit as the Vikings dropped a 52-34 non-conference game to rival Cerritos College on Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

With the win, Cerritos (1-2) earned its first victory of the season and retains possession of the Crosstown Cup, the perpetual trophy given to the winner of the annual rivalry game.

Things didn't look good for Long Beach (0-3) as the Falcons stormed out to a huge 31-0 lead after Cerritos quarterback Travis Denker tossed four first-quarter touchdown passes.

Trailing 38-0 in the second, the Vikings finally got on the board at the 3:16 mark. Sophomore quarterback Ryan Craighead capped a six-play, 62-yard drive with a five-yard TD pass to sophomore Mike Evans and LBCC trailed 38-7 at halftime.

The momentum carried over into Long Beach's favor in the third quarter.

Craighead tossed an eight-yard TD pass to sophomore Robert Bebek at the 10:56 mark, hit sophomore Willie Bobbitt with a 10-yard touchdown pass at 5:04, and freshman running back Jerramie Jackson leaped over the Cerritos defensive line for a two-yard touchdown run (00:27) and amazingly, LBCC cut the Falcons' lead to 10 points at 38-28 as the two teams went into the fourth quarter.

Cerritos finally snapped the Vikings' scoring streak when Denker tossed his fourth TD of the game to Lindsey Anderson, a 12-yard pass, with 6:15 to go to put the game out of reach for Long Beach.

Long Beach made one last push late in the contest. Craighead marched the Vikings down the field 75 yards over 14 plays and closed the drive with a 10-yard TD toss to Bobbitt with 2:39 remaining.

Cerritos answered with a 43-yard TD pass by Denker to Anderson with just 28 seconds left to close out the scoring and hand LBCC its third loss of the season.

Craighead threw for 300+ yards for the second straight game, completing 31 of 59 passes for 363 yards with four touchdowns but two interceptions. Bobbitt caught eight passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns while sophomore Travon Payne had eight receptions for 113 yards.

Sophomore Holman Faatili led the LBCC defense with nine tackles (five solo) and a fumble recovery.

Long Beach returns to action next Saturday (Sept 24) when it hosts Los Angeles Pierce College in a 1 pm non-conference game.