La Cañada football can’t stay with San Marino in league setback

The La Cañada High football team was looking to start the Rio Hondo League campaign with its second straight win.

To accomplish that, the Spartans would have to get past host San Marino.

Nick Singhal ran for three touchdowns to lead San Marino to a 42-7 league victory against La Cañada on Friday.

La Cañada (5-3, 1-1 in league) turned the ball over three times in the first half and had a bad snap on a punt deep in its own territory to consistently set up San Marino with short fields.

The Titans led, 28-7, at halftime.

Quarterback Brandon Reese scored on a one-yard run early in the second quarter for the Spartans’ lone score.

Reese completed eight of of 22 passes for 51 yards and added 16 yards in six carries. Jacob Hardy carried eight times for 30 yards.

San Marino (3-6, 2-1) was led by Singhal, who gained 108 yards in 16 carries and scored on runs of 13, 1 and 14 yards. Connor Short completed seven of 10 passes for 69 yards and one touchdown.

Short carried six times for 52 yards and one touchdown. Matthew Karapetyan caught a touchdown pass and ran for a touchdown for San Marino.

Dez Delgatty caught three passes for 41 yards for La Cañada. Justin Zoltzman recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter to spur the defense.

La Cañada was held to 106 yards in total offense. San Marino amassed 239 yards on the ground.

The Spartans had a number of dropped passes in the second half that hindered their offense.

Nathan Fajardo intercepted two passes for San Marino.

“Three plays right out of the gate really hurt us. We couldn’t recover from those mistakes.” La Cañada coach Jason Sarceda said.

“They played a solid game and did what we expected. We have no excuses. We just have to come out and play.”

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.