One big pass play defined the entire game as Golden West fell to Cerritos 7-3 Saturday night at home.

That one big play was a 94-yard pass from Cerritos quarterback Nick Mitchell to Stacy Chukwumenzie early in the third quarter. Mitchell was the top performer for the Falcons finishing with 168 yards passing on 13 completions. Running back Kishawn Holmes was lethal on the ground rushing for 109 yards on 19 carries.

Despite the 319 yards Cerritos put up, the Rustler defense played well and came up with some key stops. The most impressive stop came after an Adam Vance interception that was returned 57 yards to the Golden West 30 yard line. The Rustlers forced Cerritos to turn the ball over on downs with linebacker Duane Tuitasi sacking Mitchell to give the ball back to the offense. This led to Golden West's only scoring play, a 47-yard field goal from Quinton Conaway.

Another factor that led to the low score was the copious amount of penalties on the Cerritos side. The Falcons committed 11 penalties worth 119 yards. Most notably, a block-in-the-back penalty took away a long rushing touchdown for Holmes, which became a 35-yard gain instead.

Next Saturday, Oct. 1, Golden West travels to Veterans Stadium to square off with Long Beach at 6 p.m.