From Top Clockwise: CJ Montes, Rmon Huff, Justin Lockhart, Dante Coxsom, Darius Perrantes, Blake Howard, Gabriel Grbavac, Will Stewart By BRIAN REED-BAIOTTO, Sports Editor If the 2017 football season seems like it’s going too fast, it’s because it is. We’re already in ‘Week Six’ and Pasadena area league races start tomorrow (Friday) night. La Salle […]
From Top Clockwise: CJ Montes, Rmon Huff, Justin Lockhart, Dante Coxsom, Darius Perrantes, Blake Howard, Gabriel Grbavac, Will Stewart
By BRIAN REED-BAIOTTO, Sports Editor
If the 2017 football season seems like it’s going too fast, it’s because it is.
We’re already in ‘Week Six’ and Pasadena area league races start tomorrow (Friday) night.
La Salle (2-3) is rested and ready after their bye week, and St. Francis (5-0) looks to stay perfect.
The Lancers host a Salesian (1-4) team that allows 40 points per game.
La Salle is no longer employing a two-quarterback system.
Freshman CJ Montes has earned the reigns and despite some costly picks, Montes has shown a lot of potential and glimpses of why so many at the school look forward to the next three years.
Justin Lockhart (4 receiving TD’s), R’mon Huff (2 TD’s) and Dante Coxsom (1 TD) have helped a young and inexperienced Lancers’ program battle each week.
Lockhart leads the Lancers with 337 receiving yards.
If La Salle were ever able to establish a consistent rushing attack, Montes and the offense could take their game and team to another level.
Freshman Damian Curl has a team-high 178 yards on the ground and 3 rushing TD’s.
St. Francis is coming off its fifth blowout in as many tries, and they did so with quarterback Darius Perrantes in street clothes on the sidelines.
One area of concern for the Golden Knights, especially if you ask the senior leadership, is that they’ve come out a little slow and without as much passion as you’re used to seeing from a St. Francis and Jim Bonds-led program.
None of their starters have played all four quarters yet as the Golden Knights have outscored their opponents by a combined margin of 227-75.
Perrantes will be back in the saddle when they host St. Paul (2-3) at 7.
With the return of Perrantes at quarterback, St. Francis can now move Greg Dulcich (3 receiving TD’s) back to wide receiver, where the 6-foot-4 senior joins Blake Howard (4 receiving TD’s), Andrew Monarrez (2 TD’s) and Isaac Cordova (2 TD’s) as the area’s best receiving core.
Elijah Washington and Kevin Armstead, who combine for 500 yards rushing and 12 TD’s will continue to anchor the Golden Knights’ ground game.
Gabriel Grbavac (28 total tackles, 4 sacks), Will Stewart (26 tackles), Blake Howard (25 tackles, 3 sacks), Zach Kejmar (21 tackles) and Elijah Washington (20 tackles) will look to hold a St. Paul offense that averages 224 rushing yards per game in check.
The Swordsmen passing game is almost extinct with just 93 yards through the air each week.
Armando Velasco leads St. Paul with 411 rushing yards and 3 TD’s, while Que Allen has 285 yards and 5 TD’s on the ground.
Maranatha (4-2) gets an enormous gut check..
The Minutemen open Olympic League play when they travel to Cerritos to tale on the defending CIF champions in Valley Christian.
Maranatha started the season 4-0, but since then, the Minutemen have been outscored 71-3 in losses to Brentwood and Poly, respectively.
MHS features the smallest (in numbers) roster in the area and they’re missing two offensive lineman to make the challenge even steeper.
If MHS is to bounce back, they’ll have to rely on quarterback Kwon Peterson and all-purpose player Jacob Moreno to jumpstart a grounded Minutemen offense.
Pasadena (1-4, 1-1) got its first regular season and Pacific League win last week when the Bulldogs defeated Glendale, 68-13.
PHS will host undefeated Crescenta Valley (5-0, 1-0) at 7.
The Falcons average margin of victory thus far has been by a 40-10 clip.
Cole Doyle leads the CV passing game with 823 yards and 13 TD’s.
Doyle has only been picked four times in 2017.
Joe Suh (454 yards rushing, 7 TD’s) and Doyle (305 yards rushing, 4 TD’s) anchor the Falcons rushing attack.
Muir (2-3, 0-2) should be able to break their three-game losing streak when they take on Hoover (1-4, 0-2) at 7.
The Mustangs face a Tornadoes team that has been outscored by a margin of 159-68.
Muir has consecutive losses to La Salle (21-20), Arcadia (35-19) and Crescenta Valley (38-8).
Marshall (1-4, 0-1) travel to El Monte at 7.
The Eagles take on a Lions’ team that has been outscored 144-134 this season, but El Monte is 3-2 overall, and 1-0 in Mission League play after its 26-20 victory over Mountain View last week.
Marshall is coming off its bye week and has been outscored 188-39 this season.
Poly (4-1-1) is resting during its bye week and will travel to Boron next Friday.
