It might be time for the California Interscholastic Federation, better known as CIF to most, to hang a “Welcome Back” sign for South Pasadena High as the Tigers arrive at the Valley View campus in Moreno Valley Friday night for their scheduled semifinal football contest.
The Tigers, 8-4 overall, including going 4-0 to win the Rio Hondo League, seem to be making it an annual tradition of playing in the big game to decide which team moves on to play for the CIF championship.
South Pasadena has been at the semifinal stage in its season three out of the past four years, only to fall short in all of them.
“First one, technically we won in the books because our opponent had an ineligible player and had to forfeit,” summed up South Pasadena longtime head coach Jeff Chi, talking about the trio of setbacks. “Second, it was a close one that we lost because of a turnover. And last year, we were overmatched.”
Now the Tigers are again in position to finally get over the hump.
“With each of these games, we learned and hopefully we will win one,” said Chi, who would like nothing more than to see his team topple the Eagles, beat the winner of Western Christian versus Baldwin Park in Friday’s other Division 11 semifinal when title match is played November 28, the day after Thanksgiving, and ultimately celebrate South Pasadena’s first CIF crown in 50 years.
Yes, it was back in 1975 that the Tigers last won one, and Chi and company like the idea of being in the hunt to achieve it.
Following a remarkable turnaround, winning six straight after going 2-4 in non-league to get the 2025 campaign underway, the Tigers are back for more, looking to knock out Valley View in the 7 p.m. kickoff with their vaunted running attack and a defense that that has given up only 24 points in the team’s first two playoff games as South Pasadena rolled past San Marcos of Santa Barbara 42-17 in CIF first round action and 41-7 over Palmdale in last week’s quarterfinals.
The path the Tigers took in the early going, when they were struggling to win games against strong opponents on the schedule, was partially by design insists Chi, to get them ready for the rigors of league play, and fortunately for South Pasadena it worked.
“Coming into our season, we knew that we had to use the preseason as a way to evaluate and prepare our players for these types of moments,” he explained. “Obviously, we would like to win every game, but there are bigger goals that we had in mind. And we are very close to it. That has been our focus all along, looking at the bigger picture and keep working toward it.”
While South Pasadena is going on the road this week, the team received a huge incentive to come away with a win over the Eagles in the semifinals. SPHS Athletic Director CB Richards learned on Saturday that the Tigers won an important coin toss at CIF headquarters, meaning with a win over Valley View the Division 11 CIF championship game will be played in South Pasadena.
“Now we got to do the hard part and win on Friday at Valley View,” Richards wrote in an email.
Also weighing in was Chi, recognizing, of course, there’s the major obstacle of getting past a 7-5 Valley View squad that went 3-2 in the Sunbelt League for fourth place.
“Home field advantage would be huge and helpful in achieving our goal,” said the Tigers coach of the chance to play for the CIF finale at home.
Much like South Pasadena, the Eagles were slow out the gates with a 1-3 start before going on a surge to win four straight, then losing its next two to close out the regular season.
Once playoff action began, however, Valley View found its way in CIF play as the Eagles handed Dominguez of Compton a 24-3 loss in round one, ahead of getting past Gahr of Cerritos 28-21 in the quarterfinals, both contests played on the road.
The Tigers and Eagles ironically met a year ago in the CIF quarterfinals as South Pasadena escaped with a narrow 34-31 victory, Chi noting: “It was a battle until the end, and I expect the same this time around. We need to focus and execute our assignments to come out with a victory.”
The task for the Tigers’ defense will be to slow down Eagles’ signal caller Jesse Vega, who leads the team in passing and rushing. Vega has also completed 94 of 157 of his passes for 1,380 yards and thrown 14 touchdowns. On the ground, he’s been elusive, rushing for 777 more on 147 carries, averaging 5.3 yards, while scoring another 12 times.
Add it all up, and Vega can pretty much do it all offensively with his arm and legs, recording 26 TDs to up to now, which calls for South Pasadena to slow down the Eagles’ 6-feet,183-pound senior sensation with a top defensive effort.
“They have a quarterback that is very mobile, and he can make plays down field,” Chi said of Vega while noting Valley View, like the Tigers, had an uphill battle in some of its non-league encounters to get ready for league play. “They had some tough competition, and they have improved from their losses. That’s a sign of a good team.”
Of course, there’s other strong talent surrounding Vega in the likes of Mychael Johnson, who has picked up 228 yards on 39 carries and scored once. Joshua Cannales and Nazieer Taylor, both seniors, have both picked 167 yards on 43 and 36 carries, respectively.
On the receiving side, senior Alex Ramirez leads the Eagles with 37 catches for 594 yards and five scores while sophomore D. Randin is next with 33 and 530 yards and six TDs, followed by junior Noah Neri with 14 for 188 and three touchdowns.
Putting the clamps on the Tigers’ highly-talent senior running back Trey Freking, who continues to find big holes behind the force of a potent offensive line, could prove to be a tall order for Valley View.
In 11 games, Freking has rushed for 1,823 yards on 254 carries and scored 26 times on the ground. In eight of those games, he’s gone over the 100-yard mark. He’s also caught five passes on the season for 45 yards, two of those going for touchdowns.
“Offensively, we will once again rely on our O-Line to control the line of scrimmage and run the ball with mixing in the passing game, keeping them on their heels,” Chi said. “Defensively, we have to contain the quarterback from running and making plays down field.”
Doing most of the throwing has been junior quarterback Andrew Nott, completing 113 passes for 1,023 yards and 13 TDs while sophomore Cody Robinson has been successful on 45 of his 80 passes for 675 yards and five scoring tosses. He’s also supported the Tigers ground game with 179 yards on just 21 carries, an 8,5 average, and scored twice.
Adding to the running game has been Evan Hyun, a junior, who has 260 yards, packing the ball 52 times, for a 5-yard average and a pair of touchdowns.
Hauling in the bulk of the passes for the Tigers has been junior tight end Grayson Ebner with 26 receptions for 502 yards and four touchdowns, along with junior Lorcan Swift, 22 catches for 396 yards and six TDs, and junior Lorenzo Jones with 24 more for 304 and three scores.
And so, for South Pasadena it comes down to another semifinal opportunity, one more attempt to reach that cherished place, the chance to play in the CIF Division 11 title game with a victory on Friday night.
“It takes a special group of players to be in our situation,” said Chi. “It takes lots of work, dedication, and preparation to do what this team has done. Every week, they have to lift (weights) to maintain their physical strength, study our opponents to anticipate their plays, and be emotionally resilient to deal with setbacks to come back to compete again. It has been a long season, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now and we would love to finish it our way. In addition, I can’t say enough about my coaching staff and how hard they have worked each week preparing our team to win and get to this point. Our success has been truly a team effort.”
