La Cañada football can’t slow San Marino
SAN MARINO — Riding a two-game winning streak, the La Cañada High football team needed to win one or both of its final two contests in Rio Hondo play and it would reach the postseason in coach Ryan Zerbel’s first year at the helm. The only caveat is that the two opponents left on the schedule were the league’s established powers, starting with San Marino and ending with Monrovia.
It did not go well for La Cañada against the host Titans, who dominated the Spartans to the tune of a 49-0 final that saw a 42-0 halftime score.
“They are good. They are a really good team,” Zerbel said of San Marino. “I knew this before the season. They are just really well coached and they have got some talent.”
With the win on Friday night, San Marino (9-0, 4-0) now has an eight-game winning streak in league. On Friday night, the Titans, ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Central Division, also notched their fifth straight victory against La Cañada (4-5, 2-2) six days before the five-year anniversary of the last time the Spartans defeated San Marino back on Nov. 5, 2010. It was also the Titans’ second shutout in a row and third of the season.
“That is pretty much what they’ve done to everybody they’ve played,” Zerbel said of the early Titans advantage. “You let them get on top of you and then that takes you out of your game plan.”
Things began on a positive note for La Cañada, which started the game with the ball and handed it off to fullback Christopher Han on consecutive plays resulting in 12 yards and a quick first down. However, after that, things went downhill. On the Spartans’ seventh offensive play JP Shohfi picked off a pass from Spartans quarterback Tyler Rubendall and returned it 69 yards for the game’s first points with 9:38 left in the opening quarter.
“[La Cañada] is a big team and they have a lot of powerful linemen and a good, powerful fullback,” San Marino Coach Mike Hobbie said. “They did what I figured they’d do. Look at how small we are on defense and try to push us around and they did early. But I guess we got tired of getting pushed around and played our kind of defense.”
On the Titans’ seventh play on offense, Shohfi caught a nine-yard touchdown toss from quarterback Carson Glazier to go up, 14-0, with 4:32 left in the first and held a 14-0 cushion at the end of one. Shohfi, who did not play after the break, finished with six catches for 106 yards. Glazer, who played into the third quarter, finished 11 of 13 for 145 yards and the one score.
San Marino running back Michael Chan scored three of the Titans’ four rushing touchdowns in the second quarter, as the Titans exploded for 28 points in the period for a 42-0 lead at half. Chan’s first covered seven yards for the first score of the second.
After Chan’s first score the next two La Cañada drives were of the three-and-out variety and each of those were followed by three-play Titans touchdown drives culminating in touchdowns: the first on a one-yard rushing touchdown by short-yardage quarterback Mark Wicke off a direct snap and the second ending with a two-yard run by Chan.
Chan finished with 13 carries for 86 yards and the three scores.
With the clock running throughout the second half, San Marino was able to accomplish the rare feat of holding the ball for the entire third quarter. The 12-play drive was capped by a 17-yard rushing touchdown by Rafferty Stenwall.
Ryan Breneman was the leading rusher for La Cañada with 13 carries for 48 yards. Rubendall finished five of 14 for 88 yards and three interceptions. The Spartans’ leading receiver was Andrew Sarceda with three catches for 71 yards. Forty-one of those came in the game’s final minute on a long bomb from Rubendall. The Spartans called a timeout with six seconds to go 15 yards from points, but the game ended on the next play with Rubendall pushed out of bounds seven yards from points.
“They are a great group of kids and they don’t have any quit in them,” Zerbel said. “That is the biggest thing I’m going to take away [from this].”
La Cañada will have one last chance to secure a postseason spot as one of the top three finishers in league at home against Monrovia in the finale of the regular season. The Spartans will need to beat the Wildcats to prolong the season with the game being played two days after the 10th anniversary of the last time they won versus Monrovia, 22-6, back on Nov. 4, 2005.
“Right now [the loss to San Marino] is nothing to linger on,” Zerbel said. “We’ve still got to win a game to get in and that is what the focus is right now.”