Glendora, CA (Football) -- Freshman quarterback Byron Ingram completed a program record 29 passes and sophomore wide receiver Matthew Cheaney had 151 yards receiving (also a program record), but it wasn’t enough as the Fighting Owls failed in their upset bid of #3 Cerritos. The Fighting Owls struggled again in the red-zone going three for seven and falling to the Falcons 16-21.
Citrus would get off to a good start on Saturday afternoon. On Cerritos’ opening drive, Citrus’ Christyn Lewis stripped Marshaw Frilloux on the Citrus’ 13 yard line and Gabriel Aquino jumped on the ball to give the Fighting Owls their first offensive opportunity of the game.
The offense would make the best of it driving all the way down to Cerritos’ seven yard line before stalling out and settling for a 23 yard field goal by Eric De Lira that gave Citrus a 3-0 lead, their first lead since their game against LA Southwest.
Citrus had a mental lapse right after that though, as the Falcons’ Tavoy Moore returned the ensuing kick-off 79 yards into the Citrus end zone to give Cerritos a 7-3 edge.
The teams would trade drives until Citrus got the ball back with 5:41 left in the half. Ingram went on to engineer a six play 71 yard drive that ended in the Cerritos end zone with Matthew Rice the recipient of a seven yard touchdown catch.
After De Lira’s extra point attempt failed, Cerritos went on a drive of their own going 91 yards in just 13 plays, scoring with 14 seconds left in the half to take a 14-9 lead into the break.
Cerritos would come back out of the half and pick up right where they left off with another touchdown drive this time just a short 28 yard one, thanks to the excellent field position set up by Eric Russell’s 34 yard punt return.
Citrus and Cerritos would trade the ball back and forth throughout the rest of the third quarter, with the Fighting Owls finally able to get a drive going that spanned the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarters.
Needing a score Ingram went 7 for 9 in the scoring drive, completing his record breaking pass when he found Rice in the end zone for an 8-yard strike. After De Lira’s extra point was good, Citrus trailed by just five points.
Citrus’ defense would respond off of that, forcing a three and out, but the Cerritos defense obliged, forcing the Fighting Owls offense into a three and out of their own.
Citrus would get a chance late in the fourth quarter when they got the ball back on their own 45 yard line and 4:27 left on the clock.
In that drive Ingram hooked up with Cheaney for a 36 yard pass and catch that put the Fighting Owls on Cerritos’ 15 yard line. That would be all the steam Citrus would muster though, as a fumble on a snap and three straight incompletions would force the Owls to turn the ball over on downs. With the ball back Cerritos just ran out the clock, and thwarted Citrus’ upset bid.
Ingram would finish the day 29 of 56 for 335 yards and 2 TD’s, both to Rice. Ingram also rushed for a team high 38 yards. Defensively, Citrus was led by Kevin Puckett who recorded a game high 9 tackles and picked off his fourth pass of the season.
With the loss, Citrus falls to 1-6 overall and 0-3 in Central Conference play, while Cerritos improves to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in conference games. The Fighting Owls will try and keep some of their momentum gained from Saturday’s game going next week, when Citrus east on the 210 to take on #18 Chaffey College. Kick-off is set for 6:00 PM.
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