L-R: Andreas Solling, Franco Alonso, Brian Love, Darius Perrantes, Jacob Moreno By BRIAN REED-BAIOTTO, Sports Editor Pasadena area football programs head into ‘week two’ of 2018 seeking answers to many early-season questions. Will St. Francis bounce back from its first season-opening loss in a decade? Can Maranatha get more consistent play from their young quarterback […]
L-R: Andreas Solling, Franco Alonso, Brian Love, Darius Perrantes, Jacob Moreno
By BRIAN REED-BAIOTTO, Sports Editor
Pasadena area football programs head into ‘week two’ of 2018 seeking answers to many early-season questions.
Will St. Francis bounce back from its first season-opening loss in a decade?
Can Maranatha get more consistent play from their young quarterback and can they cut down on far too many penalties that plagued them last week in a two-point loss to Pasadena?
After not playing since August 17, will Muir be able to continue its forward momentum from a huge week zero victory at Charter Oak and will playing 356 miles from home have any impact?
Can Pasadena win back to back games for the first time since 2015?
Will Poly’s Franco Alonso and Jackson Treister continue to lead the program offensively and will the Saturday afternoon kickoff time in late August affect either team’s execution.
After consecutive losses and just six total points thus far, will the La Salle offense find the consistency and production first-year coach Andrew Pankow needs to keep the Lancers competitive?
St. Francis (0-1) will host a perennial San Gabriel Valley power (Damien) on Friday at 7.
The Golden Knights couldn’t have played much worse in their week one, five-point loss at Mira Costa, and yet they still gave themselves a chance to win late.
SF won’t be able to even their early season record unless they do two things.
First, the offensive line must give the area’s best quarterback (Darius Perrantes) enough time to show off his incredible accuracy, and secondly, it is imperative they find a remedy for six dropped passes from a week ago.
Damien (1-1) lost its season opener to Glendora, but the Spartans are coming off a 42-7 victory over Claremont last week.
Muir (1-0) flew to Oakland for Friday’s match up with Stellar Prep of Hayward.
The Mustangs earned a huge, season-opening victory at Charter Oak, but they haven’t been on the field since then.
Muir had a bye this past week.
If the Mustangs are going to win its first two games of 2018, they will need big games from (quarterback) Brian Love, (running back) Jahlique Stephens and (receiver) Aryonis Harrison.
They will also count on sophomore linebacker Adrian Zepeda to set the tone on defense.
Stellar Prep (1-1) opened its season with a 40-32 victory over Kelseyville, but last week, the Thunder fell, 56-0, to Clayton Valley Charter.
Poly (1-0) will host La Canada on Saturday at 2.
The Panthers got huge efforts from Jackson Treister and Franco Alonso in a blowout victory over Village Christian.
Both Alonso and Treister scored two TD’s apiece.
La Canada (0-2) has scored just 18 total points thus far and they are coming off a 51-6 beatdown at the hands of Santa Paula last Friday.
Considering the 2 p.m. kickoff time, the Panthers and Spartans will obviously hope to find a way to blunt the heat.
Pasadena (1-1) got its first win of the season last week.
The Bulldogs outlasted Maranatha, 14-12, and they look to ride the momentum of that road victory when they head to Whittier to take on Pioneer.
It will be interesting to see if PHS can get more consistency offensively and just as important, they very much seek and need to minimize penalties.
Andreas Solling may have found his rhythm last week in his first win as the PHS quarterback.
He’d be the first to tell you that he could have played much better, but last week was a big step forward for both Solling and the program.
Pioneer (2-0) hasn’t given up a point this season.
The Titans defeated South East and Ribet Academy by a combined score of 60-0.
Maranatha (1-1) had a really poor showing last week, but there is only room for improvement from the two-point loss to Pasadena.
The Minutemen had nearly 20 penalties and their quarterback had a less than accurate evening last Friday.
MHS will travel to Citrus College to take on Azusa.
The Aztecs (0-1) had last week off after opening their season with a 47-34 setback against Ganesha back on August 13.
Enrique Garza will almost certainly bounce back after the rough week throwing the ball, and he could do himself a big favor by getting the ball to Jacob Moreno and letting the junior do what he does best.
La Salle (0-2) is seeking its first win after consecutive losses to begin the 2018 season.
The Lancers fell to both Arcadia and Salesian, and did so by a combined margin of 71-6.
La Salle needs to find some consistency offensively, but you can’t overstate the fact that first-year coach Andrew Pankow was basically given a brand new team to mold and it certainly will take a while to get where they want to be as a program.
The Lancers will host Birmingham of Lake Balboa.
Birmingham (1-0) had a week zero victory over Harvard-Westlake, 30-21, and then enjoyed their early season bye week.
