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MONROVIA – One week can make a big difference in football. Monrovia’s defense was on the receiving end of a thrashing by South Pasadena last week, giving up 425 rushing yards and 36 points in a loss. But the Wildcats completely turned things around against previously undefeated La Canada with a 28-21 win on Thursday night in Rio Hondo League play.
Monrovia (7-2, 3-1) is now right back in the thick of the league championship race. The Wildcats, with a win next week over a struggling Pasadena Poly team, can earn a co-league championship or a three-way share again of the league title if La Canada (8-1, 3-1) beats South Pasadena (6-2, 3-0) next Friday.
“I thought South Pasadena played harder than us last week,” said Monrovia coach Jose Casagran. “As a result, our players appeared to me to be much more serious this whole week. Hopefully, that was part of the reason they came out and played their hearts out.”
Monrovia receiver Vince Paez caught seven passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns. He said the big difference between this week’s 28-21 win and last week’s 36-27 loss was the defense.
“The defense came to play,” he said. “We didn’t miss many tackles. Last week we missed a lot of tackles. We were executing on defense.”
The defense only gave up 97 rushing yards against La Canada which relies heavily on the running game. This after the Tigers rushing attack last week punished the Wildcats relentlessly.
It was the Wildcat defense that made a game-winning stand with time running out in the fourth quarter.
Monrovia was holding on to its 28-21 lead trying to eat up clock when Byron Bell fumbled at the La Canada 48. River Wokosin recovered for La Canada with 3:50 left. Sophomore quarterback Joe Bell led the Spartans down to the Monrovia 24. That’s where the Spartans faced a 4th-and-4 with 1:40 left. La Canada called a timeout.
The Spartan offense went back out to the field but got called for a delay of game penalty when the team couldn’t snap the ball. Bell then ran left on the next play to try to get the first down but was tackled by Dominic Lino five yards short. The Wildcats then took over and ran out the clock.
La Canada coach Dave Avramovich took the blame for the delay of game penalty as the offense was looking to the sideline for guidance as the play clock expired.
“I thought we had 40 seconds and I think we had 25,” he said. “I didn’t see the back judge’s hand go up (to signal the play clock is winding down) and neither did any of our coaches so that’s our fault really. I should’ve called timeout. We had one.”
Avramovich said he was happy his team battled back in the second half after being down 21-0 at halftime and 28-7 to start the third quarter.
“(Monrovia) is really good,” he said. “They have athletes who are tough to run with. We just played really poorly in the first half offensively. And (Monrovia) had two really big plays.”
The first of those plays was a 75-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Jesse Saucedo to senior Joshua Griffiths deep over the middle. Griffiths had blown past the Spartan defenders for a first quarter touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
That was the first of three touchdown passes thrown by Saucedo who completed 10 of 20 passes for 305 yards.
The second touchdown pass gave Monrovia a 21-0 lead with 2:47 left in the second quarter. Saucedo dropped back on the first play of the drive and threw deep to the left side to a streaking Paez who caught the ball and sprinted to the end zone for a 64-yard touchdown.
“(Saucedo) is only a freshman and I give him a lot of props,” Paez said of his teammate. “He came out here on varsity as a freshman and has been dialing it up for us.”
Saucedo connected with Paez again on a 4th-and-20 in the third quarter. Saucedo threw to the middle of the end zone where Paez beat his defender again to catch a 25-yard touchdown that put Monrovia up 28-7.
“If I got a good start, I knew I could run right by him so that’s what I wanted to do and I did,” Paez said.
La Canada didn’t give up. Bell hit Jakob Kim down the right side for a 25-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to narrow the Monrovia lead to 28-14. The Spartans later made it 28-21 with 5:06 left when Bell kept the ball and ran it in for a two-yard score to end an 11-play, 78-yard drive.
Bell completed 13 of 22 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns. His other touchdown pass was a 46-yard throw to Quest Swan early in the third quarter. Swan caught six passes for 111 yards.
Avramovich said next week’s game against South Pasadena will be tough. He praised the Tigers.
“I think it’ll be a great old school football game,” he said. “It might be over in 45 minutes (due to all the running). South Pasadena, to me, has been the best team in the league for the past three years. We’ll do our best getting ready for them. I love their coach (Jeff Chi). I love the way their kids play. I’m trying to copy some of what they do because they’re so good at it. A league title game—you always want to play in those. It’s a great opportunity for us.”
