< The Latest 2025-10-18T06:52:33+0000
The Pasadena Star-News | Fri 10/17 10:45pm PST | Donald Morrison
LA CAÑADA — La Cañada coach Dave Avramovich had a tough time remembering the last time the Spartans had defeated Monrovia before this season. He guessed it was a long time ago, and he’s right if you consider 20 years as a long time. That winless streak finally ended for La Cañada as the Spartans overcame a slow start on offense to pull away in the second half for a 14-0 win in Rio Hondo League play on Friday night.
La Cañada (8-1, 2-1) has a bye next week. The team can then secure at least second place and an automatic spot in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs in the final week of the regular season with a win over San Marino.
Monrovia (5-3, 0-2) will need to qualify for the playoffs with an at-large bid and can make a strong case for that with wins over San Marino and Temple City in the next two weeks.
As for the Spartans, this was the first win over Monrovia since a 22-6 triumph in 2005.
“Our defense played lights out all night,” Avramovich said. “They just did a great job.”
La Cañada held Monrovia to only 90 total yards of offense while forcing two turnovers and stopping the Wildcats on two fourth-down attempts.
“Last week we really struggled stopping South Pasadena on fourth down,” Avramovich said. “We talked about it all week that fourth downs are big plays. Tonight, we really did a good job on fourth down and stopping the run.”
The La Cañada offense took some time to get going a week after a stunning 23-22 loss to South Pasadena that saw the Spartans commit a couple of costly turnovers.
The Spartans were led by senior running back Dash Paper and junior quarterback Joe Bell. Paper rushed for 103 yards on 25 carries while Bell scored the team’s two touchdowns.
In fact, at the start of the game, it looked like it could be more of the same as last week. Bell threw the ball to Martin Betancourt in the flat on the game’s first offensive play. The ball went off of Betancourt’s hands and into the hands of Monrovia’s Dominic Lino for the interception at the Spartan 40. However, La Cañada’s defense held Monrovia on a 4th-and-10 play.
On La Cañada’s second possession, Bell was stopped one yard short on a 4th-and-3 run at the La Cañada 43.
The Spartan defense, though, bailed out the offense again when Logan Wong recovered a Troy Grise fumble on the very next play.
La Cañada drove the ball inside Monrovia territory twice in the first half but came up empty both times.
Avramovich and his coaching staff rallied the offensive players at halftime.
“We had a great talk in our locker room,” said Paper. “Coaches, staff and players came together and we knew we were going to switch up everything — our mindset, our physicality and how we were going to play on the football field.”
“Just believe in what happens when you put in the work and expect good things to happen,” Avramovich said when asked about the halftime talk. “Good things did happen, and that’s what we talked about. It was a good second half for us.”
La Cañada’s defense forced a three-and-out on Monrovia’s opening drive of the third quarter and then took over at its own 30. Bell had back-to-back runs of 26 and 15 yards during the drive, which put the ball on the Monrovia 20. Bell punched the ball into the end zone later with a one-yard touchdown run to put La Canada up 7-0 with 3:39 left in the quarter. It was a 10-play, 70-yard drive.
La Cañada stuffed Monrovia’s Byron Bell for a five-yard loss on a 4th-and-4 run on the next drive to take over at the Wildcat 37.
Dash ran the ball three straight times for 21 yards. Those runs, along with a Monrovia unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, put the ball at the Wildcat 1. Bell then plunged into the end zone again for his second touchdown that put the Spartans up 14-0 with 4:55 remaining in the game.
Monrovia had a chance to cut the lead to one score, but quarterback Angel Morales was intercepted by Bryson Bond with 2:59 left.
Monrovia coach Jose Casagran credited La Cañada and proclaimed the Spartans the best team in the Rio Hondo League.
He also said he was proud of his players, especially after the numerous injuries the team has dealt with all season. Starting quarterback Jesse Saucedo is out for the season with an ACL injury and didn’t play in the Wildcats’ three straight losses. Monrovia has also had injuries to a couple of receivers, as well as some offensive linemen.
Grise, who’s normally a receiver, has been filling in at quarterback. He completed five of seven passes for 22 yards against La Cañada and led the team in rushing with 18 yards.
“The players haven’t broken all year,” Casagran said. “And they’ve had opportunities to break. We’ve been down in a couple of games early. They’ve never buckled, so I don’t expect them to buckle right now.”