By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Four Pasadena area football programs will attempt to extend winning streaks on Friday, and three of the four face road challenges. Maranatha could be the first area program to three wins if the Minutemen are able to outlast visiting Azusa. Poly will get what they consider a gut check when […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
Four Pasadena area football programs will attempt to extend winning streaks on Friday, and three of the four face road challenges.
Maranatha could be the first area program to three wins if the Minutemen are able to outlast visiting Azusa.
Poly will get what they consider a gut check when they travel to Brentwood with an early 3 p.m. kickoff.
La Salle is hoping to take its momentum from last week’s come-from-behind victory at Monrovia.
St. Francis will travel to Pasadena High School on Friday night, and the Golden Knights head in as heavy favorites.
Poly (1-1) at Brentwood (2-0) at 3:
Poly bounced back after a ‘week zero’ loss to Temple City by blowing out Mission of Canada, 55-0, last weekend.
Just like in 2016, when the Panthers win games, they get touchdowns from multiple players.
Last week, Jackson Hayes, Christian Henderson, Cameron McFarlane, Thomas McConnell and Graham Olson all had TD’s for Poly.
One area that is a wait-and-see scenario is how quarterbacks Matt Loomis and Graham Olson will produce when the Panthers need to get down the field through the air.
Brentwood is 2-0 and has wins over Army-Navy of Carlsbad and Rio Hondo Prep by a combined score of 60-34.
The Eagles shut out the Kares last week, 14-0.
Brentwood will also be looking to avenge last season’s 28-14 loss to Poly.
“I think we just need to stay disciplined,” Poly two-way starter Jackson Hayes said. “If we play within ourselves, and do what we do, then I think we’ll be all right.”
St. Francis (1-0) at Pasadena (0-2) at 7:
Pasadena will look to pay St. Francis back for last year’s 35-0 trouncing.
The Golden Knights and Bulldogs met in ‘week two,’ last season as well.
Pasadena is 0-2 thus far, and the Bulldogs are susceptible to not only giving up big plays like they did last week at Maranatha, they are also hurting themselves far too often with needless personal fouls.
Any hopes of a comeback last week after scoring twice in the first couple minutes of the second half was nullified by drive-enhancing penalties.
Daron Dederian looked much better than his numbers would indicate, but he’s likely going to see far too much of Gabriel Grbavac and his buddies on defense in the Pasadena backfield all night.
Despite their record, PHS has big-play talent like Jalen Jolley and Kalonji West who can take a ball to the house at any time they’re given a seam.
St. Francis goes in as a heavy favorite, but Pasadena has too much talent and skill to look past.
The Golden Knights, though, if they play their game and don’t allow PHS players to verbally take them out of their game could enjoy a sizeable victory.
One week after throwing for 6 TD passes in his varsity debut, SF quarterback Darius Perrantes and his offense look to get off to a quicker start than in last week’s 48-21 victory over Mira Costa.
“For me, as the quarterback, I’m focused on building better chemistry with my receivers (timing), but as a team, we definitely have to focus on the games less about the team we’re playing and more on ourselves,” St. Francis quarterback Darius Perrantes said. “We prepare like we’re playing a highly-ranked team each week.”
Perrantes’ favorite target in week one was 6-foot-4 wide receiver Greg Dulcich.
“We’re focused on playing our game at the level we’re capable of, and executing on all sides of the ball,” Golden Knights’ receiver, Greg Dulcich, who had three TD receptions last week said.
Another expectation is SF senior running back Elijah Washington getting over the 100-yard mark rushing and for the captain to find his way into the end zone.
Regardless of perceived advantages on paper, 18-year head coach Jim Bonds will not take anyone lightly and he has his own concerns.
“Pasadena is an extremely athletic team year in and year out,” St. Francis coach Jim Bonds said. “This year is no exception. We need to play disciplined defense and limit our mistakes on offense. Last week we had way too many penalties and have focused this week on cleaning things up.”
Azusa (1-0) at Maranatha (2-0) at 7:
Maranatha could match last year’s win title with a victory tonight against visiting Azusa.
The Aztecs are coming off a 68-27 victory over Bassett last week.
Jorge Ledesma threw for 5 touchdowns last week for Azusa and the Aztecs accounted for north of 400 yards of total offense.
Maranatha is heading in with at least the same momentum.
The Minutemen have blowout wins over Rim of the World and Pasadena by a combined score of 70-28.
Kwon Peterson is finally getting the time to throw the ball, and the senior already has 7 TD passes through the first two weeks.
Peterson will have one less offensive tool than a week ago after Awan Parker will serve a one-game suspension from CIF after being ejected in the game against Pasadena, which is a school he started his prep career at.
“We just have to make sure we don’t take plays off. There are 11 men on the field and if everyone does their job, we should come out with a victory,” Maranatha quarterback Kwon Peterson said. “We don’t have Awan (Parker) this week, which means Chandler Auguste is going to have to step up and be another receiver I can go to.”
It will be interesting to see if Jacob Moreno can come close to matching last week’s effort that saw the sophomore catch two TD passes and run the ball with a purpose.
One concern Peterson has had in both wins is his team seems to take their collective foot off the pedal after jumping out to early leads.
La Salle (1-1) at Birmingham (0-2) at 7:30:
La Salle heads out for their second consecutive road game.
The Lancers are going in with momentum, though, after coming back from a two-TD deficit to beat Monrovia.
And they also saw freshman quarterback CJ Montes break out for four TD passes to earn the 42-40 victory over the Wildcats.
It won’t be officially announced, but look for Montes to get his first start at quarterback tonight.
Chris Wilson has started both the Arcadia and Monrovia games without too much to show for it, but expect Wilson to get some time.
Another area the Lancers hope to address is getting a more balanced attack.
The rushing game has yet to really make its mark and Kole Hamane and Damian Curl hope to change that.
It will be interesting to see how much quicker the offense might get with the first start of Montes.
