By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor The Pasadena and La Canada area’s quality football programs all made their mark in ‘week one,’ of the 2017 football season. To clear it up, I know someone has to be thinking, “how could it be week one if some of these schools have played twice already?” CIF has labeled […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
The Pasadena and La Canada area’s quality football programs all made their mark in ‘week one,’ of the 2017 football season.
To clear it up, I know someone has to be thinking, “how could it be week one if some of these schools have played twice already?”
CIF has labeled the first week of the season (August 24-25) as ‘week zero.’
Approximately half of the football teams in the southern section saw action last week, and this past weekend was ‘week one,’ where all teams had games.
From Thursday to Saturday, the area’s best and most consistent programs all got victories, and impressive one’s at that.
St. Francis, Poly, Muir and Maranatha all had blowout victories.
La Salle earned probably the most important win of the week after losing in week zero and being down on the road Friday night.
The Lancers came back and defeated Monrovia.
The same could not be said for the Pasadena or Marshall programs.
The Bulldogs were beaten from the opening whistle at Maranatha and the Bulldogs lacked discipline throughout.
Marshall is in a rebuilding mode, and fell to Campbell Hall, 56-0, and are now 0-2 on the season.
And while their two losses (Duarte and Campbell Hall) have come by a combined score of 93-0, first-year coach Jeff Cole seems to be in this for a long haul and is dedicated to turning the program around.
Thursday: St. Francis 48, Mira Costa 21:
The obvious question from the Golden Knights’ opener was how Crespi transfer Darius Perrantes would play in his first varsity start.
Quite well.
The junior threw for 305 yards and 6 touchdowns through three-plus quarters of action.
It took him a few drives to find his groove, but once he did, Mira Costa was not going to be able to keep up with Perrantes or the Golden Knights.
Greg Dulcich is the definition of a team guy.
Dulcich wanted to play quarterback after the graduation of last year’s star Michael Bonds.
When he realized that wasn’t going to happen, Dulcich sharpened his tools that helped him have a solid 2016 at wide receiver, and that continued on opening night for St Francis on Thursday.
Dulcich had 6 catches for 133 yards and three TD’s.
He also replaced Perrantes late in the game and was able to keep the offense in cruise mode.
Dulcich could be the No. 1 quarterback at many schools, and is as good with his legs as he is with his arm.
But for now, he’ll settle being the Golden Knights No. 1 target at receiver and making runs after catch to help St. Francis battle for an Angelus League title.
Isaac Cordova, Andrew Monarrez and Blake Howard each had TD receptions.
Elijah Washington had nearly 80 yards rushing and also contributed on defense at linebacker.
Will Stewart, Gabriel Grbavac, Bobby Gazmarian, Matt Barriga and the entire defense held Mira Costa in check for most of the game.
SF wants to sharpen up its special teams play (missed extra point, bad snap on a punt) and a couple miscommunications on defense before they take on Pasadena on the road Friday.
No coach or player would think or say this, but, from the outside, this reporter predicts the Golden Knights could put up some huge stats on Friday if they play to their capabilities in what appears to be a mismatch against the Bulldogs.
Friday: La Salle 42, Monrovia 40:
No area team entered the weekend with more doubt as to the outcome than did La Salle.
One week after both of its rookie quarterbacks failed to find a rhythm, the Lancers went to Monrovia and fell behind by two touchdowns at the break.
Sophomore Chris Wilson had started his second consecutive game and for the second week in a row, he was unable to get much going.
His tag-team partner, freshman CJ Montes, had thrown a Pick-6 the week prior that cost the Lancers against Arcadia.
Despite almost no varsity experience and a two-touchdown deficit, CJ Montes made his first statement as a high school quarterback.
Montes threw for 4 TD’s and almost 200 yards in less than three quarters action.
La Salle’s defense made a huge play on a 2-point conversion that would have tied the game, and then one final stand when the Wildcats were about 13 yards from field-goal range to end the game.
Montes even got a shout-out from his old coach, rapper Snoop Dogg.
And while no one on this site ever thought that name would work its way into a story, Montes did make parents, players and coaches from ‘the Snoop League’ very proud for his resiliency.
Donte Coxsom scored one touchdown through the air and another via the ground.
Friday: Maranatha 36, Pasadena 21:
After a 2016 season that saw the Minutemen win just three games all year, Maranatha got its second win in as many tries to start the 2017 season.
And both victories came in dominating fashion.
Maranatha got off to a 29-0 lead at half time, and while they sputtered offensively in the second half, the Bulldogs play and mistakes never gave them a chance.
Kwon Peterson threw 3 TD passes and now has 7 for the season.
Peterson threw for nearly 200 yards and scrambled out of congestion to extend plays and drives.
But perhaps maturity and discipline are his two greatest traits as a quarterback.
Take Friday, there were many times that he was chased out of the pocket and he’d either make a play or toss the ball away to save yardage.
That wasn’t the most impressive part, though.
For those of us close to the field, you see and hear things people in the stands might not see or hear.
On many occasions, Pasadena players barked at Peterson any time a play didn’t go Maranatha’s way, and surprisingly, Bulldogs’ players even made taunts when Peterson did make a play out of nowhere.
One play in particular represented what Peterson is all about and something he endured throughout the game.
Maranatha had the ball at near their own 20-yard line and he sprinted out left of the pocket towards his team’s sideline, and after his pass fell incomplete, a Pasadena player walked after him for at least 10 seconds and was “talking smack” to Peterson.
Peterson, though, kept walking and didn’t even acknowledge the Pasadena player as any coach would hope his player would do, but knowing how truly difficult that is to walk away from.
The stud of the game was sophomore receiver-running back Jacob Moreno, who showed off a couple red marks and scratches on his chest and stomach after the game, because of a very physical contest.
Despite being knocked down, Moreno was not out.
He caught two TD passes and had 120 yards receiving, and also did some damage on the ground.
There were two moments that must have coach DeJuan Shamburger pulling his hair out.
1) The first came with the Bulldogs trailing 14-0, but had the ball at their own 30-yard line or thereabout, and Daron Derderian threw a lateral behind the line of scrimmage to which his teammate could have either picked it up and thrown it or took it and ran down field.
But the Bulldogs’ player not only made a half-hearted effort at the ball, he didn’t realize it was a live ball, nor did he lift a finger to try and stop Maranatha’s 230-pound defensive end Vic Hoffman from picking the ball up, and running it in for a TD and a 21-0 lead.
2) Pasadena trailed 29-0 at the break, but Kalonji West took the opening kick of the second half back for a 95-yard TD, and after holding the Minutemen on defense, Derderian connected with Jalen Jolley on the first play for scrimmage for a second TD to begin the second half.
On the next drive, again, the PHS defense looked to have forced another punt, but two different personal fouls cost the Bulldogs 30 penalty yards, which kept the MHS drive alive and they got into the end zone.
To put the ultimate salt in the wound, ex-PHS player Awan Parker scored on a 2-yard TD run to put the game out of reach.
It was a pretty miserable game if you weren’t on the winning side, because of some nearly 40 (combined) penalties, the heat and humidity and constant falling of ashes from the Glendale fire.
Friday: Muir 48, Desert Oasis of Las Vegas 0:
Just like last year, Muir is off to a quick start.
Last year, Muir had a roller coaster season of multiple wins and then multiple losses and coach Antyone Sims is going to do everything he can to make sure the Mustangs keep rolling after this year’s 2-0 start.
They went into Las Vegas and dominated Desert Oasis thanks to a score of players making their mark in the victory.
Damario Strong anchored the running game with 120 yards on just five carries and he also scored three times.
Strong had TD runs of 34, 25 and 18 yards.
His quarterback, Brian Love did his part as well.
Love completed 9 of 13 passes for 183 yards, including three TD passes.
Nick Moore and Love connected on two TD’s and Tyron Clark also took a Love pass 67 yards for a score.
DJ Bailey also had 96 yards on 11 carries.
Muir has yet to allow a point in wins over Compton and Desert Oasis.
Saturday: Poly 55, Mission of British Columbia 0:
Poly knew its ‘week zero’ loss at the hands of Temple City could either be a sign of things to come or it was going to be a wake-up call that lit a fire under the Panthers’ collective rear end.
If Saturday’s effort was any indication, it was the latter.
Jackson Hayes got Poly off early and the Panthers never allowed Mission to get into the game.
Hayes took the first play from scrimmage for a long TD and had scoring runs of 80 and 70 yards.
Hayes finished the game with four carries for 170 yards, but he also kicked the extra points and plays defensive back.
Christian Henderson, Cameron McFarlane, Thomas McConnell and Graham Olson all had TD’s for Poly.
The first real test in getting a gauge as to how good Poly will be could be answered this Friday when the Panthers travel to Brentwood.
As part of the Poly Fall Tailgate, the game was originally scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff, but the heat over the past week caused them to push the start back four hours.
Next Week’s Football Schedule:
Friday: Poly at Brentwood at 3
Friday: St. Francis at Pasadena at 7
Friday: La Salle at Birmingham at 7
Friday: Azusa at Maranatha at 7
Friday: Marshall at San Gabriel
** Muir is on their bye week.
