The Long Beach City College football team played one of its best games of the season on Saturday, but mistakes in the third quarter ultimately led to a 43-24 National Central Conference loss to visiting Citrus College in the Vikings' final home game of the year at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Long Beach is 0-9 overall and 0-6 in conference play heading into its season finale next week (Nov. 10, 6 p.m.) at College of the Desert.
Despite the loss, the Vikings recorded some notable firsts of the season. Freshman running back Demetrio Edwards' (pictured) 13-yard touchdown run at the 8:50 mark in the first quarter gave LBCC its first lead of any game this season.
A 33-yard field goal by freshman David Becerra extended that lead to 10-3 at 11:08 in the second. But Citrus (7-2, 3-2 NCC) responded with 30 unanswered points, including 16 points over a four minute span early in the third quarter, to jump ahead with a commanding 33-10 advantage.
Long Beach finally broke the Citrus scoring run when Edwards capped a long 16-play, 97-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown rush with 1:22 left in the third quarter.
Midway through the fourth, the Owls extended their lead to 36-17 when Isaiah Kepley chipped a 24-yard field goal.
Late in the game, the Vikings got within two scores (36-24) when freshman quarterback Lawrence Allen tossed an 85-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Taj Davis.
LBCC's defense forced Citrus to punt after three plays during its next drive, allowing the Vikings to regain possession with 2:25 left in regulation. Allen and Davis connected for passes of 21 and 23 yards to get to the Citrus 24-yard line. But Allen couldn't handle a bad snap and the Owls recovered the fumble to end the drive and extinguish the threat.
Citrus' Donavan Holmes closed out the scoring with a 75-yard touchdown run with under a minute to play to seal the victory.
In his first start of the season, Allen completed 16 of 39 passes for 287 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Edwards became the first Viking running back to gain over 100 yards in a game since 2010 and closed his afternoon rushing 20 times for 105 yards and two touchdowns.
Davis caught four passes for 132 yards and one touchdown and freshman Mikail Parr had two receptions for 87 yards.
Sophomore Hayden Gregory led the LBCC defense with 13 tackles (7 solo) while sophomore Jede Fue had nine tackles (5 solo) with a sack.
Photo by William Johnson/GazettesSports.com
