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Cerritos High junior linebacker Jacob Hoosac sacks John Glenn High senior quarterback Raymond Acosta, who then fumbled at the 12-yard line. Junior lineman Makai Ortiz would recover the fumble, leading to a 12-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Justin Sagun to senior wide receiver Dikshanta Adhikari just before halftime in a 35-0 win last Thursday night. PHOTO BY JB QUIBRANTAR.
October 29, 2024
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
Running clocks in high school football are to be employed at the beginning of the fourth quarter if a team is ahead by at least 35 points, or sometimes at the beginning of the second half if mutually agreed upon by both head coaches. But the Cerritos High game at John Glenn High last Thursday was played under running clock conditions from the opening kickoff.
Because of the rare situation, Cerritos was able to run only 26 plays on offense, three fewer than Glenn, yet posted a 35-0 shutout decision, keeping its dream of another 605 League title alive.
Given what lies ahead for Cerritos with the league title at stake on Thursday when the Dons host Artesia High, the game plan was tweaked a bit once Cerritos head coach Demel Franklin found out that Glenn wanted to use the running clock from the beginning of the game. That request was made by Glenn head coach Elijhaa Penny and athletic director Linda Parra on Wednesday. Glenn has been playing with anywhere from 18-21 players all season and last week, lost to Artesia 40-6. Including the Cerritos game, the Eagles have lost by over 30 points five times this season.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” said Penny of playing the entire game with a running clock. “I understand it was senior night tonight, so this game meant a lot to a lot of kids. But I think the running clock gave us the safest protocol for the kids who were out there playing.”
“It changed tremendously because we could get all our plays in,” said Franklin of his game plan. “We worked all year…I understand why we [played with a running clock]; I was for it, and I didn’t fight that at all. But the only way to get more plays, I would have had to [run a] no huddle [offense] and that would have been low class by me. So we got as many plays in as we could, we got to play a lot of young guys and now I got to see some things that we can prepare for next week.
“I understand what they’re doing, and I feel bad for them,” Franklin later added. “Coach Penny is a great coach; the A.D. [Linda] Parra is amazing, and I want to see them succeed. They’re part of our league and I want them to have a full team.”
Even though the Dons (7-2, 2-0) didn’t get to run more plays in preparation for the Artesia game, Franklin admitted that the coaches and players have been watching a little bit of film on the Pioneers and he has an idea of some of the things they do.
Both teams had the ball once in the opening quarter and the Dons touched the ball for only 5:14 in the second half. Cerritos began the game and ran seven plays, the last coming on a 16-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Justin Sagun to senior wide receiver Ruben Castro. It was the only drive the Dons had in the opening stanza.
They would begin the second quarter at their own 33-yard line and nine plays later, went up 14-0 when senior running back Dikshanta Adhikari scored from three yards out. The final two minutes of the half would see a flurry of events in a matter of five plays. Sagun was picked off by sophomore Sam Reeves, but two plays later, Cerritos junior linebacker Jacob Hoosac recovered a fumble at the Glenn 12-yard line. From there, Sagun connected with Adhikari for a touchdown with 50 seconds remaining. The Eagles ran one more play before halftime.
Cerritos ran 18 plays and gained 179 yards in the half while Glenn had the ball for 12:17. Senior quarterback Raymond Acosta took a dozen snaps, but the team managed just six yards.
After Glenn (1-7, 0-2) punted on its opening drive of the second half, Cerritos needed just two plays to get its fourth touchdown-a 23-yard strike from sophomore quarterback Alexander Laurin to sophomore wide receiver Terrance Grissom. The play came right after Glenn senior safety Jacob Ramirez was taken off on a stretcher with 3:57 left in the quarter. While it wasn’t immediately confirmed at the time, Penny said it looked like it could be a possible concussion.
“The last I saw, he was responding well, he’s moving well, and he looked like he was healthy,” said Penny after the game. “I think they just took the proper protocol route. I hope he’s okay, though.”
Laurin would toss a 33-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Dylan Davis with 54 seconds left in the game to complete the scoring. The Dons gained 77 yards on only eight plays in the second half and had the ball for just over five minutes. For the game, Sagun was eight of 11 for 124 yards while Adhikari picked up 34 yards on four carries. Hoosac would have five tackles while junior Bailey Crawford and sophomore Uriah Archie each had four tackles.
Even though the Eagles had the ball for over 30 minutes, they could muster 27 offensive yards on 29 plays with four plays going for negative yardage. Acosta completed five passes for 15 yards and Reeves had six carries for minus two yards.
Glenn will conclude the season on Oct. 31 at Pioneer High, seeking to avoid the program’s first one-win season since 2006. Since then, the Eagles have been winless three times and have won two games in a season six times. Last season, in Penny’s rookie head coaching campaign, Glenn went 6-4 and beat Pioneer. Despite the loss, Penny continues to see positives come out of this season.
“That is the best part about these games; getting stomped on and just seeing kids not give up,” he said. “They didn’t give up; had a big stop [in the fourth quarter] on the second to last possession. We just couldn’t get anything going on offense, but it was good to see the kids keep continuing to fight and get the reps and get the experience.”
As far as changes in the offseason, Penny says the players need to continue to get more reps as possible against kids from anywhere and that they’re still green in high school football. He added that the team needs to work on the little things, like reads, knowing which holes to hit, and knowing the correct guy to hit as receiver.
“There’s just so much stuff that we have to get better at, and there’s only one way to get better,” he continued. “We have to get the reps in.”
Cerritos will play for its fourth straight 605 League title when it hosts Artesia on Oct. 31. The loser will have to settle for second place, bit will still advance to the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.
