“Just do your job” is the rallying cry coming from South Pasadena High football coach Jeff Chi this week as the Tigers look for their third win to close out the non-league season, traveling to Alhambra to face the Moors.
South Pasadena, 2-2, coming off a 21-7 home loss to unbeaten Golden Valley, appears to be the favorite, but Chi warns his club can’t take any opponent lightly as the Tigers gear up to knock off their 1-3 neighbors.
“We’re telling our guys this is an opportunity to work on your game, build some confidence, get a win and be ready for the league season,” Chi said ahead of the 7 p.m. kickoff Friday night that will be played off the school’s campus at nearby Moor Field.
The Tigers have a bye after Alhambra, giving them two weeks to prepare for 3-1 Pasadena Poly at home on October 4. South Pasadena then goes to San Marino to face their rival October 11 before two home games against Monrovia and Temple City, October 17 and 25, respectively. The Tigers wind up the regular season at La Cañada on November 1.
Monrovia, Temple City and La Cañada have all strung together impressive 4-0 records in the preseason.
For now, however, all the focus is on the fifth of 10 regular season games, Chi saying his squad is healthy and ready for the challenge. “Our guys need to take this opportunity against Alhambra to execute and prove to themselves and their teammates on how good they can be,” said the Tigers’ coach. “We especially have to cut down on turnovers, so that is what we’re working on this week.”
Going into last week’s game, Chi was well aware of Golden Valley’s “good size, aggressiveness, and speed,” he said. “They are a well-rounded team and I knew we had to play a near perfect, mistake free game in order to compete with them.”
South Pasadena took the opening kickoff, drove down the field and scored a touchdown in the early moments of the contest, only to be shutout the rest of the way.
“We just made too many mistakes here and there,” stressed the coach, noting that his club had six turnovers on the night. “It was horrendous.”
The Tigers continue to search for answers on offense, with struggles at quarterback and receivers finding openings on routes “We just have to do a better job of executing, but it comes from a lot of our guys being young and inexperienced,” Chi explained. “We’ve got the next three weeks to clean that up and get ready for league.”
Chi looks at the setback to Golden Valley as a “learning experience,” and optimistic better days are on the horizon.
While his club was held to just a single score, Chi was pleased the Tigers kept the visitors in check most of the way. “I’m proud that our defense held our opponent pretty close again, and we kept fighting back until the very end and competed.” he said. “That was the positive side of it. Yes, we would have loved to win the game, but we were the underdog. We had nothing to lose, but everything to gain by just playing hard. That was the approach we took. I think that (attitude) will help us going into league and into the playoffs by playing all these tougher teams.”
Chi insists the Tigers purposely put together a demanding non-league slate in order to be ready to face what appears a rigorous Rio Hondo League schedule. South Pasadena got an early indication of how grueling it would be when it was held scoreless in a 28-0 opening season loss to Schurr on the road before going on a two-game winning streak, turning away Arcadia (21-6) and Crescenta Valley (29-23), and coming up short in its most recent outing against Golden Valley.
After South Pasadena took the early lead last Friday, the Grizzlies rebounded with 14 second quarter points, and added seven more just before the half, helped by an interception. 6The Tigers couldn’t get much going offensively, but held the Grizzlies to just seven third quarter points.
“They had a good passing game, running game and were aggressive on defense,” Chi said of Golden Valley. “But I liked how our guys played them tough on defense. That interception killed us. We have to fix protecting the ball and scoring more.”
Chi, despite the team’s low production on offense, is confident the Tigers have what it takes to defend their league crown it shared a year ago with Monrovia and San Marino.
“We can,” he assured. “But we just have to get better in certain areas. We just have to play better as a unit and be consistent play after play on the offensive side of the ball. Our defense has been playing pretty well. Hopefully we can put it all together this week.”
