Cerritos High senior running back Sam Reeves can’t get past La Mirada junior lineman Ryan Gonzales in the first half of last Friday’s Gateway League opener. Reeves was held to five yards on 10 carries as La Mirada defeated the Dons 49-14. PHOTO BY DAVID PAGE.
October 5, 2026
By Loren Kopff
Cerritos High and La Mirada High had not played each other since 2017 when the two were in the Suburban League, a seven-school circuit predominantly dominated by the Matadores and Mayfair High. But last Friday was a case of déjà vu as the host Matadores, on their homecoming game, brought back memories of the old Suburban League.
Junior running back Matthew Sotelo, a transfer from St. Paul High who was making his season debut with La Mirada, rushed for 121 yards on 12 carries and scored three times, and senior quarterback Isaac Cuevas completed nine of 12 passes for 118 yards as the Matadores eased past Cerritos 49-14.
The hosts scored on their first four possessions and built a 42-0 lead on Sotelo’s second touchdown, a two-yard run, two minutes into the second half. La Mirada outgained Cerritos 397-358
“Obviously, we did some things pretty well,” said La Mirada head coach Lucas Mealy. “In the second half, we gave up some stuff, and we had some guys in there who hadn’t played a whole lot of football, so it gave them some experience. But the two picks down in the red zone was huge; one for a return for a touchdown. Overall, the defense played lights out the whole game.”
The score may have indicated a blowout victory for La Mirada, but the Dons (1-5, 0-1) were putting up enough yardage to prove otherwise. Cerritos had 158 yards just in the first half alone and had drives of seven and 10 plays through the first 18 minutes. But after punting on their first three possessions consisting of 47 yards on 13 plays, the Dons had the first of their two drives in the game of 10 plays.
After Cuevas threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Kaiden Wardlow, and starting at their own 20-yard line, Cerritos junior quarterback Evan McDonald rushed for 15 yards on third down and threw a pair of third down completions of 23 and 12 yards to senior wide receiver Terrence Grissom. But on fourth and nine from the La Mirada 44-yard line, McDonald was incomplete on his sixth pass in 11 attempts to that point.
The Matadores (5-1, 1-0) went back the other way and seven plays later, Sotolo scored from nine yards out to make it 28-0 with 2:23 remaining in the half. Then both teams would turn the ball over on the next three possessions, first coming on a fumble recovery by La Mirada senior lineman Amir McCalope, then on the next play, Cerritos senior cornerback Matthew McCoy picked off Cuevas.
La Mirada High sophomore quarterback Sam Cameron gains 10 yards on the team’s fourth possession of last Friday’s game before getting tackled by junior defensive back James Aterrado of Cerritos High. Four plays later, the Matadores would score and ended up winning 49-14 in the Gateway League opener for both teams. PHOTO BY DAVID PAGE.
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That interception enabled the Dons to get to the seven-yard line five plays later. But on fourth and two from the seven, McDonald was picked off by sophomore lineman Ryan Gonzales who took it to the house 95 yards the other way.
“It was not good; we made a ton of mistakes, and we had a ton of penalties,” said Cerritos head coach Demel Franklin. “We didn’t tackle very well at times. Defensively, if we tackled a little bit better, the score would have been different.”
The Matadores began the second half by going on a six-play, 42-yard drive which ended in Sotolo’s second touchdown. Then in the only third quarter possession for the Dons, they went 65 yards on 10 plays, consuming 7:06 and getting a three-yard touchdown play from McDonald to junior wide receiver Roman Bateman. Sotolo would get his third touchdown of the night on the first play of the fourth quarter, a 12-yard run, to make it a 49-6 contest.
“It kind of gives us hope because we’re not getting shutout,” said Franklin. “It gives us positive energy. I just wished that we could have executed the onside kick afterwards. That was another issue on special teams.”
“It was a great opportunity for him to be on the field and show what he can do,” said Mealy pf Sotelo. “We know what [senior running back] Josiah [Fregoso] can do and Josiah has had a really good first five games. We wanted to get Matthew out there and see what he could do. We know now that we have a definite two-headed monster in the backfield.”
After Sotelo’s last touchdown, his night was done as the Matadores went to their bench as the team picked up 53 more yards on half a dozen plays under a running clock situation.
“I think my performance was good, but the whole team…the environment was amazing,” said Sotelo. “I’m excited for the rest of the season just from this. I didn’t really have expectations. I just wanted to play my heart out since I’ve been sitting for so long. I just wanted to have fun again.”
Fregoso, who scored from 41 yards out in the first quarter to begin the game’s scoring, gained 49 yards on three rushes. He and Sotelo were the main ground gainers in the first half while sophomore quarterback Sam Cameron completed four of six passes for 56 yards. Now that Sotelo is eligible, the Matadores have a pair of running backs that should give them an extra advantage in any of their remaining four regular season games against tougher competition.
“Ultimately, we want to score touchdowns with whoever it may be,” said Mealy. “We definitely want to make sure we utilize all 11 players on the field…but our offense is designed to get the playmakers the ball, and I thought we did a good job of that.”
“I feel like we’re the dynamic duo; he’s the speed and I’m the power,” said Sotelo. “I feel like we go hand in hand.”
Even though both teams had their bye weeks leading up to the Gateway League opener, it was tougher for Franklin to scout the Matadores because Sotelo was ineligible to play in any of the five non-league games.
“See, that’s the wild thing with the sit out period,” said Franklin. “We also had some sit out guys; we had two guys join us [in the offseason]. So, we heard about [Sotelo]; never seen him play. I heard he runs hard and he’s kind of fast, but to see him in real life, we were the first victim of that. He’s a very good running back.”
“We didn’t mention Cerritos, we didn’t mention La Serna, we didn’t mention Downey, we didn’t mention Warren and we didn’t mention Mayfair,” said Mealy during the bye week. “Our bye week was focused on us. We know what we’re getting ourselves into with this league. It started with Cerritos, but we know what’s coming up next with La Serna. Ultimately, the big thing is we want to focus on maintaining the integrity that we have for the game and play at the highest level.”
Meanwhile, the Dons struggled on the ground, so McDonald had to do all he could as he completed 16 of 32 passes for 203 yards but was picked off twice. Grissom caught six passes for 75 yards and senior running back Sam Reeves, who was held in check with five yards on 10 carries, caught four passes for 131 yards including a 76-yard touchdown pass from Grissom on the next play following Sotelo’s 12-yard score.
“Oh, it’s demoralizing,” said Franklin of not capitalizing in the red zone. “We called the plays and [McDonald] was supposed to throw it to the outside to the top pylon, and he’s throwing it down the middle. He did that twice, so on film, it’s going to look even worse. We have to correct that.”
Cerritos will face another former Suburban League rival on the road when the team faces Mayfair High in the second of three straight road games while the Matadores will be put to the test when they travel to La Serna High on Friday as well.
“Mayfair is going to have 100 guys and a bunch of linemen,” said Franklin. “We’re going to see that every week [in league]; everybody is going to have more guys than us and they’re going to be bigger than us. We just have to play through it. They’re going to put 11 on the field just like we are. We have to execute better for us to have a chance to compete.”