By Tim Peterson
(Monrovia) – Inglewood had all of its weapons on display jumping out to a 24-7 first quarter lead and cruising the rest of the way in a 58-19 win over Monrovia Friday night on the Wildcats home field.
The Sentinels didn’t waste any time getting on the board scoring on their first possession. Quarterback Justyn Martin kept and scooted 23 yards for a touchdown to cap a 51-yard drive.
Monrovia quarterback Noah Rodriguez was hit and the ball popped loose and Inglewood was in business again at the Monrovia 35. T.J. Harden found daylight on the first play from scrimmage racing 35 yards for the score. A two point pass attempt failed but just like that it was 12-0 Inglewood.
Before you could blink it was 18-0 when a Monrovia punt was retuned 55 yards in a heartbeat two minutes later.
The Wildcats uttered a murmur of protest when Rodriguez connected with Carlos Hernandez on a 35-yard touchdown strike with 2:51 left in the first quarter.
But Inglewood scored again with 20 seconds left in the half on a 41-yard touchdown pass from Martin.
Down 32-7 after another Martin TD toss in the second quarter Rodriguez scored on a six-yard scamper to cut it to 32-13. Before the Cats faithful had any hopes of a rally the Sentinels put that to rest with two quick scores before halftime.
Harden found paydirt again on a 25-yard jaunt and another punt return for a touchdown – this one for 62 yards – gave the Sentinels a 44-13 lead at the break and a running clock in the third quarter.
To add salt to the Wildcats wounds Rodriguez was knocked out of the game in the second quarter with a concussion. While going down to retrieve a bad snap Rodriguez took a vicious hit from an Inglewood defender. Rodriguez appeared to be down and Inglewood was hit with a penalty but Rodriguez had to be helped off the field.
Kaden Taylor came on to replace him and played the rest of the way. Taylor did provide a bright spot in the third quarter tossing an 18-yard touchdown pass to Marcel Jones for the Wildcats final score.
Inglewood added two more including another touchdown pass by Martin to Orion Peters in the fourth quarter.
Martin threw for three scores and ran for one while throwing for over 200 yards. For Monrovia Hernandez had a nice night catching 7 passes for 94 yards and a touchdown.
Monrovia ended the shortened season with an overall record of 2-2. Inglewood was a perfect 4-0.
Maybe Monrovia can move to the Valle Vista League, where the Wildcats could play San Dimas, Northview, and Covina on a yearly basis. There’s certainly better competitive balance there than in the Rio Hondo League.
The last time I recall that Pasadena and Monrovia were together in the Pacific League was in 1972. That’s some kind of longstanding conflict.
I believe moving the two Glendale schools to the Rio Hondo is still a viable idea. Then, that league could have six teams for football: San Marino, Temple City, South Pasadena, La Canada, Glendale, and Hoover. (I take it that Blair High School isn’t going to restart its football program any time soon.)
@ SoCal: For the last decade, I’ve been saying that Monrovia—and possibly San Marino—should be moved into the Pacific League. (San Marino definitely would’ve been a good fit two or three years ago.)
In return, Glendale and Hoover should join the Rio Hondo League, where they might actually become competitive in football.
I think it’s a good idea, but it hasn’t happened yet.
From T. Peterson: Monrovia will never join the Pacific League due to the gang conflict between Monrovia and Pasadena. Too much risk and possibility of violence when they play each other. This is not my opinion but straight from reliable sources. Basically they told me there is no chance it will happen. Monrovia may end up in a league out East.
Well said so cal ….
Monrovia should not be in that league. Nobody in that league played Monrovia because they did not want to lose big. If I was Monrovia I would petition to change league and play with Arcadia’s league. It would be fair and the other teams in that league will not back out of playing games. I think this backing out of playing games because you do not want to be tooken to the wood shed set a precedent and now you will see teams back out of games next year. They will use different excuses but you know the real reason. All the teams in the Rio Hondo league played each other except Monrovia, what a coincidence. They were heathy the week before and the week after they scheduled Monrovia, COWARDS. Monrovia had to schedule way up twice.
Just a couple years ago Inglewood was losing to Pioneer.
The talent is always in Inglewood area… they just get raped by private schools and recruiting from other schools… if they could keep talent they would be annual powerhouse,,, like Pasadena
Told everyone hire milvon James he will turn your program around