COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : El Camino College Has Won for the Road, 34-18

Lightning doesn’t strike thrice--at least not where the El Camino College football team is concerned.

Zapped two weeks in a row, the Warriors were determined not to get burned a third time Saturday night against host Cerritos.

As a result, El Camino bolted past Cerritos, 34-18, in a Mission Conference game at Falcon Stadium. It was the North Division opener for both teams.

El Camino Coach John Featherstone was excited afterward, but for a different reason.

“It’s great to win again,” he said. “We could have gone right in the tank after last week. I can’t tell you how proud I am of this team.”

The victory followed back-to-back road losses at Riverside and Fullerton, which cost El Camino (5-2) the top spot in the state rankings and dropped it to No. 20 entering Saturday’s game.

In its last loss, El Camino surrendered 22 fourth-quarter points to Fullerton.

“After an emotional loss like that, you never know how you’re going to respond,” Featherstone said. “But the team took it upon themselves to be ready for this football game, and they were.”

In the finale of a grueling three-game road swing, El Camino had to slow quick-footed Cerritos (4-2), the No. 5 team in the state and ranked 16th in the nation by JC Grid-Wire.

It did it behind Anthony Daigle, the Arizona State transfer who leads the conference in rushing, and backup quarterback Rod Anderson, who was starting for injured starter Rod Harvey.

Daigle carried 32 times for 145 yards.

Anderson, a freshman from Spokane, Wash., was making his first start. He completed 11 of 16 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown.

Anderson admitted he was nervous, but Harvey tried to calm his understudy after a second-quarter fumble.

“Rod told me to make it just like practice, just to execute,” Anderson said. “That helped me out a lot.”

Consequently, Anderson and El Camino kept Cerritos’ offense off the field. And when the Falcons did have the ball, El Camino’s defense shut them down.

The two teams traded field goals--a 33-yarder by El Camino’s Louis Perez and a 37-yarder by Cerritos’ D.J. Barker--in the first quarter.

El Camino scored the game’s first touchdown on a one-yard first-quarter dive off left tackle by fullback Tony DaCosta.

Harvey, who is suffering from an injured back, tried to play briefly, but his first two passes were intercepted. The second interception, by Cerritos’ David Blume, led to Shawn Jones’ one-yard touchdown run two plays later. Jones’ TD tied the score, 10-10, with 7:34 left in the half.

On El Camino’s next possession, Anderson marched the Warriors 68 yards in 12 plays. DaCosta followed Daigle’s block and scored on a three-yard plunge for a 17-10 Warrior lead.

Cerritos’ Travis Carter fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Warriors recovered at the Cerritos 37. Three plays later, Anderson rolled to his right and passed to a leaping Shannon Thompson in the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown with 13 seconds left in the half.

El Camino stretched its lead in the second half on Perez’ 37-yard field goal and a five-yard touchdown run by Mark Harper.