La Cañada High football loses, but still heads to postseason
LA CAÑADA — All week, La Cañada High first-year coach Ramsey Lambert and his staff had not been shy about calling the Spartans’ regular-season Rio Hondo League finale against South Pasadena a playoff game, because for all intents and purposes it was.
In Friday night’s game against the visiting Tigers, the winner would finish alone in third place in league to claim the final Rio Hondo League automatic playoff slot in the upcoming CIF Southern Section Central Division playoffs. It was South Pasadena that defeated the Spartans 21-3 to apparently claim that honor, but then things changed.
“Guess what?” first-year coach Ramsey Lambert said to his team after the defeat. “It’s not ideal, but you have another chance to show what you are made of.”
The Tigers (7-3, 3-2) had played the game without the presence of their coach, Marty Konrad, who was absent from the game due to an unspecified administrative issue and still pulled out the win with offensive line coach Marc Shettleroe leading the ship.
The visiting South Pasadena crowd chanted “CIF” after the game, but it was not to be.
Soon it was revealed that due to some alledged sort of CIF violation by the Tigers, there had been a vote by the league that banned South Pasadena from the postseason. Thus, the Spartans, despite their fourth-place finish, by default will be the third team headed to the postseason from the Rio Hondo.
“The league made a decision,” Lambert said. “We get a second chance. It never happens in this game, but hopefully we can take advantage of that.”
Even with Friday’s result, the Spartans (6-4, 2-3) have posted their first winning record since 2006 in their first season with Lambert in charge, and La Cañada is headed to the postseason for the second straight season, albeit under strange circumstances.
La Cañada recorded its only points of the contest and the only points of the third quarter on a 38-yard field goal by Mikey Selsor. South Pasadena was on the cusp of a backbreaking touchdown late in the quarter, but Tiger Ernesto Jauregui fumbled the ball a yard out and Spartan Andrew Sarceda pounced on it in the end zone to keep the game in sight at 14-3 entering the final quarter.
“I feel undeserving [of the postseason berth] because we did lose, but we get another chance, and for these seniors out here it means a lot to them,” Sarceda, a junior, said.
However, the Spartans offense, which struggled all contest to do much of anything, could not find any more points in the fourth. Tiger Christian Carter ran in his second touchdown of the game on the first play of the quarter to set the final margin following the successful conversion kick.
“It was tough. We couldn’t get our offense going today,” Lambert said.
The first quarter was a nightmare for La Cañada, as it trailed, 14-0. The Spartans’ opening play of the game was a run that went for negative-one yard. Quarterback Kevin McGowin’s first pass was intercepted and the home team did not record a completion or a first down in the opening quarter. McGowin would go on to finish 12 of 21 for 81 yards and the one pick. The Spartans’ leading receiver was Trent Bauer with five catches for 58 yards.
The La Cañada defense clamped down and held the Tigers scoreless in the second quarter.
The Tigers’ leader on the ground was Jauregui, who tallied 127 yards on nine carries with one fumble lost. The second half of the Tiger attack was Carter, who had five carries covering 59 yards.
For La Cañada, the defeat means the Spartans finish the regular season on a three-game slide. However, they have posted their most victories since another six-win campaign in 2006 and will be playing at least one more game.