ORANGE — The Canyon football team appeared to be in total control in its nonleague game against Cerritos on Thursday at El Modena High School.

Canyon led by 18 points in the third quarter but committed costly penalties on defense which extended drives for the Dons, who came back to defeat the Comanches, 31-28.

The Dons (3-2) also made big stops down the stretch, including the on the final drive of the game, when they stopped the Comanches (2-3) on fourth-and-10 from the Cerritos 17 in the final seconds to preserve the victory.

The contest was the final nonleague game of the season for both teams.

“If you would have told me at the end of the game, we’d be down three and our offense, our quarterback, our receivers and our offensive line was going to have an opportunity to go down and win the game, I’ll take that 10 times out of 10, especially against that team,” Canyon coach Phil Hughes said. “That’s a great team. Defensively, I thought we did a good keeping them contained. But we had about three or four penalties that just extended drives.”

The victory by Cerritos also overshadows another outstanding performance from Comanche quarterback Alex Lundsberg, who completed 21 of 38 passes for 367 yards and three touchdowns.

Lundsberg’s touchdown passes were for 45, 29 and 13 yards with all three scored by Kellen Rommelfanger, who finished with 13 receptions for 215 yards.

For the season, Lundsberg has thrown for 1,856 yards and 15 touchdowns through five games.

“That is actually is phenomenal,” Cerritos coach Damel Franklin said of Lundsberg’s performance. “He looks phenomenal on film, but in person, he’s super impressive.”

The Dons scored three of their four touchdowns on the ground and were close to finishing three 100-yard rushers.

Cerritos’ Labrenton Wilson, a 6-foot-1 fullback, was tough to bring down and ran for 101 yards and a touchdown.  Jayden Bagaygay rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown, plus a 35-yard receiving touchdown. And quarterback Justin Sagun had 90 yards rushing with a 73-yard touchdown run.

Canyon trailed 10-0 after the first quarter when Lundsberg and Rommelfanger connected for their three scores in the second quarter, giving the Comanches a 21-10 lead at the half.

The Comaches received the second half kickoff put together a 63-yard, 16-play drive, capped by James Munro’s 2-yard touchdown run to make the score 28-10.

But the Comanches were forced to punt on their next two drives and came up short on the potential game-winning drive in the final seconds.

On the first of the Dons’ three consecutive touchdown drives, the Comanches committed a 15-yard personal foul penalty on a third-and-7 play that would have gone for a 2-yard loss.

The penalty gave the Dons a first down on Canyon’s 42 and Bagaygay ran for a 38-yard touchdown two plays later.

Canyon’s defense committed another 15-yard penalty on the next drive and instead of a fourth-and-1 from the Cerritos 12-yard line, the Dons had a first down and Sagun ran for his 73-yard score on the next play.

Cerritos took the lead for good on the 35-yard touchdown pass from Sagun to Bagaygay.

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