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October 19, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
Over the past five meetings between Artesia High and Cerritos High prior to last Friday’s 605 League opener at Atkins Stadium, if you missed the first quarter, you didn’t miss much. The combined score during that time in the opening stanza was 6-0 in favor of Artesia and the combined halftime score in those contests since 2021 was 27-14 in favor of Cerritos.
So, it came as no surprise that the offensive action would take place in the second half in what could be the last league meeting for a while between the two ABC Unified School District rivals. But this time, it didn’t happen until the fourth quarter when the visiting Dons erupted for three touchdowns in the final 9:29 to post a 28-7 victory, improving to 6-2 overall.
“Oh man, I don’t know why, but in the first half, we can’t get anything going against these dudes,” said Cerritos head coach Demel Franklin. “I have no idea why. It’s very, very, very frustrating, and we have to figure it out. They’re fired up for us, they played very well, and I tip my hat to them. Defensively, they played incredible; they absolutely did.”
“The last two years, it’s been 7-7 and 7-6 at halftime,” said Crook. “It was kind of familiar to a lot of them, especially the seniors who were part of the previous two games since I’ve been the head coach. So, the moral was high, and they were excited to go out and win the second half.”
Following a missed field goal attempt by Artesia sophomore Johan Marquez with 24 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the Dons took over at their 20-yard line and needed five plays to take the lead as senior La’Brenten Wilson scored from seven yards out. On the second play of the fourth quarter, he hauled in a 46-yard reception from senior quarterback Justin Sagun before the signal caller picked up 24 yards to get the ball to the 11-yard line. Wilson then had an apparent six-yard touchdown run nullified because of a false start penalty.
On the fourth play of the ensuing drive, senior Sebastian Soto recovered a fumble at the Artesia 17-yard line, leading to a four-yard score from senior running back Jayden Bagaygay.with 5:41 left in the contest.
By now, the Pioneers had been decimated with injuries but were still pushing forward as senior Angel Lagunas picked up 11 and 19 yards on consecutive rushes to get the Pioneers to their 49-yard line. But the drive would stall, and the Dons needed one play to ice the game as Sagun found junior wide receiver Terrence Grissom for a 60-yard score with 57.2 seconds left.
“I’m really proud of how he stepped up,” said Crook of Lagunas. “He’s played running back…he gets reps at practice, but he’s never gotten any in-game reps before. He rose to the occasion and did what he could with what we were working with.”
The game began with a flash as Cerritos recovered their own onside kick, which has been a recurring theme all season long, and got a 28-yard gain from Wilson on the second play of the game. The drive ended with Sagun tossing a five-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Suvan Pradhan.
After that, the defending league champions would be held to 86 yards on 19 plays in the half. Meanwhile, both teams traded punts and Artesia’s second drive would end on downs when Soto batted away a pass from senior quarterback Joey Peck. Following the second and last punt of the game for Cerritos, the hosts enjoyed their best drive of the game. Starting at its 37-yard line, Artesia put together a nine-play, 53-yard drive that ended with sophomore Justin Pettus first catching a three-yard screen pass from Peck, then tying the game on a 34-yard run nearly midway through the second quarter.
“It was huge,” said Crook. “Like any team, if someone makes a big play, everyone kind of feeds off the energy of that big play and I think it kind of transitioned to our offense and guys were fired up to go out there and score.”
The low-scoring first half, in which Cerritos outgained Artesia by two yards, wasn’t the only story of the opening 24 minutes. Both teams combined for 16 penalties for 130 yards, which didn’t set too well with Franklin.
“We get so frustrated when we make a penalty and we get behind the chains, and then they panic,” said Franklin. “I don’t panic; I call the play. I have to figure that out because we keep getting long yards and we have to get better than that.
“Listen, we had a ton of penalties, but I can honestly say all the penalties were not legit,” he later said. “There was a lot of dirty stuff going on, and it’s different numbers. We’re doing a kickoff, and the lineman runs and grabs our kid’s facemask and [there was no flag].”
“It was kind of chippy, and I think when that happens; when you kind of let your emotions get the best of you in a rivalry game, there’s going to be more penalties than there normally would I think,” said Crook. “That’s just kind of how it was for both sides obviously. We were holding and blocking in the back and taunting. That’s how it is and if we get some of those mistakes back, maybe it’s a different story.”
The yellow laundry continued to make its showing in the third quarter as Cerritos senior Jacob Hoosac had a 54-yard interception return for a touchdown called back because of a holding call early in the stanza. That play came two plays after Artesia senior lineman Jaell Rueda recovered a fumble on third and one.
On Artesia’s next drive of the quarter, both teams combined for a facemask, unsportsmanlike, offsides and illegal formation penalty prior to Marquez missing a would-be go-ahead field goal.
“They played really hard defensively today,” said Crook of his defense. “We watched them on film, and we knew what they were going to do, and I thought they did a really good job of stopping them.
“We got hit with some injuries and cramping, and that’s obviously no excuse at all,” he continued. “But when that happens; guys go down and we have to put other guys in there and one thing leads to another. It is what it is; football guys get hurt and it’s next man up.”
One of the injuries he’s referring to is Peck, who injured his left shoulder on the first drive of the game and made it worse when he got tackled after throwing his first interception and landed on it.
Sagun was 12 of 20 for 188 yards, including completing all four passes in the fourth quarter with Wilson catching six of them for 96 yards and Grissom four for 78 yards. Wilson also gained 43 yards on seven rushes. Hoosac and senior Tyler Ky each had nine tackles while Soto added five tackles.
Cerritos will visit Pioneer High on Oct. 23 with the winner of that contest clinching at least a share of the league title.
“They’re a great physical team,” said Franklin. “I don’t know if they’re trying to do something different this year; it’s interesting. We’re going to see how that works out. They’re super physical, they’re big and they’re coached very well.”
Peck completed seven passes for 71 yards while Pettus and Lagunas led the ground game with 65 yards each on 11 and eight carries, respectively. Senior defensive back Elijah Johnson had four tackles while Lagunas and junior linebacker Jonathan Garcia each added three tackles.
“Offensively, we were limited to what we could do because of how guys were injured,” said Crook. “I don’t want to sound like this is a sob fest. This is what happens; you can only do so many things and our idea was, okay, we can only do this, this, and this and let’s just do it to the best of our ability. We were still able to move the ball and get first downs. But when you’re only kind of one dimensional, it’s hard to score.”
The Pioneers will entertain John Glenn High on Oct. 23 with the loser of that contest most likely assured of being eliminated from playoff contention.
“I’ve seen a little bit of them, and their coach is doing a good job over there,” said Crook. “He took over a tough situation after [former] coach [Elijhaa] Penny left. I haven’t watched too much film; we spent the bye week just preparing for this game because it’s always a big game for us. These next two games are must wins, so we’re going to take this extremely seriously; as serious as we took this game.”
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