Community College Roundup : Locy’s Scoring Pass Lifts Cerritos Over Golden West, 24-21

Quarterback Tony Locy threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to tight end Buford Joice with 15 seconds remaining Saturday night to give Cerritos College a 24-21 come-from-behind win over Golden West in a Pac-9 Conference game in Cerritos Stadium.

The victory improved Cerritos’ conference record to 3-2-1 and overall record to 4-2-1. Golden West, which went into the game tied with Fullerton for first place, is 3-2 and 3-3-1.

Golden West took the lead for the first time at 21-17 with 7:10 remaining. The Rustlers drove 77 yards on 12 plays with Todd Parker scoring on a 2-yard run.

The Rustlers forced Cerritos to punt after three plays on the Falcons’ ensuing possession and nearly ran out the clock.

But after using up four minutes, Golden West failed to get a first down on third-and-one and fourth-and-one situations at the Cerritos 16, giving the Falcons 57 seconds to rally.

It took Cerritos seven plays to score. A 34-yard pass from Locy to Paul Backes and a 13-yard pass to Lafayette Shelton helped to give the Falcons a first down at the Golden West 21-yard line.

Then, Locy called an audible and found Joice, who had beaten three Golden West defenders alone in the left corner of the end zone for the winning score.

The win not only put Cerritos, which had tied Taft and lost to Pasadena City in the past two weeks, back in the conference race, but it also put the Falcons back in contention for a postseason bowl berth.

“If we lost, the season would have been all over for us,” Cerritos Coach Frank Mazzotta said.

The statistics indicated how evenly played this game was. Golden West had 438 total yards and Cerritos had 423.

But in the second half, Golden West’s massive offensive line often dominated the smaller Falcons.

Jim Haefner’s interception of a Locy pass gave Golden West the ball at the Cerritos 46-yard line late in the third quarter, and Golden West went to take a 17-14 lead.

Runs by Parker, who gained 186 yards on 42 carries, and Dave Swigart moved the ball to the Cerritos 8-yard line. From there, quarterback Tim Hanson hit Ted Pappas with a touchdown pass.

Cerritos had driven 80 yards on seven plays to open the third quarter and increased its 10-7 halftime lead to 17-7.

A 48-yard pass from Locy to Christopher Perez helped move the ball to the Golden West 2-yard line. From there, running back Keith McCoy, who hadn’t played the past two weeks because of calf bruise, scored.

Cerritos scored in the first half on 37-yard field goal by Claudio Balboa and a one-yard touchdown run by fullback Reggie Nettles.

Golden West’s first-half touchdown came on a 13-yard scoring pass from Hanson to Parker.

Locy, who prepped at Mater Dei, completed 22 of 35 attempts for 316 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Hanson completed 14 of 27 for 157 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Backes and Shelton led the Falcons in rushing as each gained 39 yards on seven carries.