South Pasadena High’s road to a league title just got smoother, as the Tigers no longer have Monrovia, a perennial favorite, standing in their way.
Looking for three straight wins to close out the regular season and claim the crown, South Pasadena took a giant step Thursday night, by coming away with a 36-27 win at home over the Wildcats.
Behind the Tigers’ dominant running attack of Trey Freking, who scored three touchdowns and David Ortega twice, the Wildcats lost to South Pasadena for the second straight year. Freking finished the night with 33 carries for 273 yards while Ortega had 143 more, packing the ball 18 times. Total it up and that’s 416 between the two hard-charging backs.
The task at hand now for the Tigers will be to pick up victories over the next two weeks – Temple City (5-2 overall, 0-2 in league) on October 25 at home and La Cañada (7-0, 2-0) November 1 on the road – to win the championship outright.
That’s the mission at this stage for Chi and company. A year ago, South Pasadena shared the Rio Hondo League crown with Monrovia and San Marino, all with 4-1 marks.
Now the Tigers are riding high as winners of four straight and rolling at 6-2, including a perfect 3-0 slate in Rio Hondo League play. The loss dropped the Wildcats to 6-2, 2-1, hoping for some help down the stretch. Monrovia finishes up with unbeaten La Cañada and struggling Pasadena Poly.
The score was tied 7-7 after one quarter. South Pasadena led 22-13 at the break, 29-19 after three quarters and were outscored 8-7 in the fourth, but in control when it was all over.
Monrovia scored first on a 30-yard pass with six minutes gone in the first quarter Freking tied it near the end of the period on a 5-yard run, the TD set up by a Tatum Mendoza interception that put the ball near mid-field.
With seven minutes gone in the second quarter, Ortega rushed for a 12-yard touchdown, putting the Tigers up 14-7. On the ensuring kickoff, Joshua Griffiths raced 90 yards for a TD, Monrovia now one point behind, 14-13, after missing the extra point.
The next time South Pasadena got the ball, Freking picked up his second touchdown on the night, this time running it in from 19 yards out. His number was called again on the two-point conversion, and with five minutes left before the half South Pasadena had a 22-13 advantage.
Three minutes into the third quarter, the Wildcats closed the gap to 22-19 on a 15-yard scoring pass to Vince Paez. The two-point conversion was missed. South Pasadena increased its lead to 29-19 with five minutes left in the period on a 30-yard score by Ortega.
The Tigers added to their lead, making it 36-19 on a 14-yard scoring run by Freking, his third of the night, with four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
A 14-yard pass to Byron Bell ended the scoring with three minutes left in the game, bringing the Wildcats closer, 36-27, after making good on a two-point conversion.
Freking finished with 20 points, Ortega had 12 while Tigers’ kicker Nicholas Dragonas booted all four of his extra points.
To get past Monrovia is a monumental feat, Chi knowing his squad had to play its best football to get past them. “They always have very athletic kids on their team,” he said. “They have good speed, and know the game of football. It seems like their players are years ahead of our guys when it comes to experience.”
Many Wildcats’ players come into the yearly outing between the two teams after growing up playing Pop Warner or Junior All-American Football in their youth, where that is seldom the case for South Pasadena.
“Most of our guys don’t play a lot of football until they get to high school, so Monrovia has an advantage,” explained Chi. “It’s always a good test for us.”
Calling it a huge confidence booster, Chi looked to the Tigers’ 56-28 one-sided win over Monrovia a year ago to put themselves in a position to outscore the Wildcats this time around. Going in, he stressed that the Tigers had to “put it all together and play all four quarters of football, play them tough” with hopes of coming out on top.
Offensively, the effort starts with South Pasadena’s running attack, Freking and Ortega the mainstays in making it happen. “We can always rely on them on getting the big yardage,” said Chi. “They have been doing a great job. They both take a lot hits and continue to withstand a lot of pounding.”
Both spent long hours in the weight room during the off-season working on their bodies to endure the punishment of the long campaign. “Fortunately they haven’t been banged up as much as they could,” said Chi, explaining the conditioning efforts last spring and summer has paid off handsomely in their favor.
Weekly, noted the coach, the mission going into games has been to control the line of scrimmage and open up the running lanes. Making it happen, opening holes on the offensive line, have been the Tigers’ right guard Zade Marrujo, right tackle DJ Ebner, left guard Ahn Yue and left tackle Hrag Ourichian.
Defensively, making big stops are ends James Dowd and Grayson Ebner, tackles Omar Soufi and Noah Keller while Andy Yang (defensive end) and tackles Kevin Figueroa, Jacob Scott with Robin Kim, Noah Keller and Kevin Figueroa rotating in off the bench.
“Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” said Chi, talking about of his line play on both sides of the ball, insisting if the continue to played well up front, the odds are in South Pasadena’s favor to come out on top of opponents the rest of the way.
Like clockwork, it worked in the Tigers’ favor again this week. “Those guys have been doing a good job for us all season,” he stressed. “We’ve been able to count on them. It’s one of the main reasons we keep winning.”
With two league games remaining on the schedule and his team looking to the postseason, Chi knows there’s no time for a letdown. “Every one is going to be our playoff seeding game, so we have to do well,” he insisted. “We’re looking at it as one game at a time, one play at a time. Now we have to take care of business and do our job.”
