Two Saturdays ago when EC was having trouble with the offense, quarterback Bo Napoleon stepped on the field and became the hero for the Warriors.

Last Saturday, the Warriors had no hero, losing 42-28 at Cerritos College.

The loss to Cerritos knocked the Warriors out from the playoffs because it was the second conference game that EC lost this season, with Mt. San Antonio College being the first loss, so now the Warriors will play in a bowl game.

The Warriors’ next game is Saturday against Grossmont College in the Beach Bowl at 6 p.m. in Murdock Stadium. The Griffins are ranked No. 25, while the Warriors are ranked No. 17, according to JCGridiron.com.

“The Beach Bowl is the name of the bowl game and they just call it the Beach Bowl because it’s being played at EC, which is close to the beach,” coach John Featherstone said.

The Beach Bowl happens every year. The game is between two teams that weren’t fortunate enough to be in the eight-game playoffs but deserve to be in a bowl game.

Despite missing the playoffs, Featherstone will keep his players’ spirits up.

“You’ve got to put loses behind you real quick. If you let them eat at you, you have no chance to bounce back and win,” Featherstone said. “It’s the way football is.”

The Warriors committed five turnovers in the Cerritos game, three of them being returned for touchdowns.

“But now we have a chance to play in a bowl game, so that is the silver lining to finish the season at 9-2 and win our bowl game,” he said.

This is the first time since 2003 that the Warriors will be in a bowl game instead of the playoffs.

“(It was a) tough loss and although we’re at the end of the season, I enjoyed this unforgettable season with my teammates,” fullback and running back Tony Sekona said.

“It was do or die for us. If we (would have) won we would have been in the playoffs,” running back and fullback Raynard Westbrook said.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t play as well. I told our kids ‘Hey look, we got one game left to be 9-2 and being 9-2 is a tremendous accomplishment and we just happened to play a bad game,’ and I always tell the kids that we play ten games,” Featherstone said.

The Warriors had 353 yards of offense against Cerritos, including 74 yards on the ground and 279 in the air.

On offense, quarterback Matt Simms went 7-17 with 89 yards and a touchdown, but threw two interceptions and was sacked two times.

“It didn’t go very well and I got injured in the first quarter and then from there it was tough to throw the ball,” Simms said.

Backup quarterback Napoleon went 14-28 with 190 yards and three touchdowns, but threw three interceptions and was sacked four times.

“Quarterback Bo Napoleon did a good job. He had a couple of picks; they where tipped balls and returned for touchdowns and sometimes that happens in football,” Featherstone said.

“One of the interceptions was his fault, but the other two were tipped balls, catchable balls, but they (Cerritos) tipped them and returned them for touchdowns,” Featherstone said.

When asked how he felt about the game, all that Napoleon said was: “It wasn’t a good one.”

“Any loss is tough for a team when you work hard and go after championships. We’re used to winning championships around here and we were a couple of wins away,” Featherstone said.

Wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins, who has committed to the University of Tennessee, had five catches for 73 yards and a touchdown score.

Running back Sekona had 38 yards on two carries.

On defense, defensive tackle Ryan Walker had seven tackles, one pass rush effort, one sack and one forced fumble.

“I think I did a good job. I did my job and coach just told me that I did a good job the two years I was here and I’m happy with it,” Walker said.

“There are going to be a couple of games that we don’t play as well, but we have to find a way to win those and in the Mt. SAC and Cerritos games, we weren’t playing as well as are capable of and, unfortunately, we didn’t find a way to win those because we had too many turnovers in both games,” he said.

At the end of the season, the Warriors will lose key players.

“The whole defense that are starters are leaving and on offense we are losing five or six starters,” he said. “Well next year will be a rebuilding year for us, but we like to talk about reloading.”

“We have nice freshmen returning and we will be in the hunt,” Featherstone said.