Football: Vikings can’t stop Cerritos ground attack, fall 48-28

The Long Beach City College football team suffered its first loss of the season, falling 48-28 at rival Cerritos College in a non-conference game on Saturday.

The Vikings didn't have an answer for the Cerritos ground attack, as the Falcons totaled 409 yards rushing and amassed 503 yards of total offense.

Long Beach actually had a pair of early leads that were quickly erased by Cerritos. LBCC got on the scoreboard first late in the opening quarter.

Backup quarterback Gabriel Thomas led the Vikings on a nine-play, 80-yard drive and capped it with a 12-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Willie Bobbitt at the 2:42 mark to put Long Beach up 7-0.

But Cerritos came right back to tie it as Dion Curry took the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown.

Two drives later, LBCC took advantage of a Cerritos fumble deep in their own territory to jump ahead once again. Running back JaKacy Evans ran in from six-yards out for the TD to put Long Beach up 14-7 at the 14:48 mark in the second.

Form that point, it was all Cerritos. The Falcons rallied to score four unanswered touchdowns to take a commanding 34-14 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Long Beach was down, but wasn't out. Thomas completed another long drive (six plays, 60 yards) and tossed a 12-yard TD pass to wide receiver Mike Evans to cut the Falcons lead to 34-21 with 9:41 left in the game.

Cerritos responded with a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Tyrone Taylor to go back up 41-21.

Thomas tossed his third touchdown pass of the night, a 15-yard reception by Travon Payne, for LBCC's final score with 6:31 to go.

Thomas threw for 179 yards on 18 of 28 passing with three touchdowns and an interception. Jared Ginter led the Vikings on the ground with 90 rushing yards on 13 attempts. Payne caught five passes for 86 yards to lead LBCC receivers.

Linebacker Dionte Hargrove led the Long Beach defense with 12 tackles (3 solo). Moses Tili and Eric Hayes both had eight tackles.

With the win, Cerritos (3-0) retains the Crosstown Cup --- the perpetual trophy given to the winner of the annual rivalry game.

Long Beach (2-1) returns to action next Saturday (Sept 25) when it travels to Los Angeles Pierce College for a 7 p.m. non-conference game.