By Tim Peterson
(Monrovia) – Monrovia overcame a 19-6 halftime deficit with a third quarter rally and went on to beat visiting West Covina 28-26 Friday night to kick off the 2021 season.
The Wildcats looked flat in the first half and allowed West Covina huge chunks of yardage on the ground. The Bulldogs rushed for three touchdowns in the first half including a 44-yard scoring run by Zach Requena.
But with the weapons Monrovia has it seemed to be only a matter of time before they got untracked. The Wildcats went to the running game to open third third quarter and it immediately paid off. They marched 66 yards on just seven plays with Isaac Hernandez doing most of the damage. He finished the march with a two-yard run and when quarterback Noah Rodriguez ran in the two -point conversion it was 19-14 West Covina.
On the next Cats next possession Rodriguez found a streaking Carlos Hernandez who got behind the Bulldog secondary and hauled in a 64-yard touchdown pass and just like that Monrovia was up 20-19 with 1:10 left in the third quarter. The two point conversion failed but the Wildcats never relinquished the lead.
Monrovia added to the advantage early in the fourth when Rodriguez connected with Josh Barron in the corner of the end zone to make it 28-19.
West Covina had one more answer three minutes later on a 23 yard touchdown strike from Steven De Luna to Deven Muniz. The extra point cut the lead to two but that was as close as the Bulldogs got.
The game was delayed nearly 30 minutes with 3:44 left in the game when Monrovia offensive lineman Tristan Harvey had to be taken off the field on a gurney by paramedics. Preliminary reports were that he suffered a “stinger” but should be okay.
After the injury delay Monrovia was able to run out the clock and seal the victory.
Carlos Hernandez had a huge game for Monrovia. He also caught a 65-yard pass from Rodriguez in the first half and ended up with 8 catches for 200 yards and two touchdowns.
Ayden White scored on a four-yard run for West Covina with 5:48 left in the second quarter to make it 13-6. A bad snap by Monrovia on a punt attempt led to a one-yard run by De Luna with 3:39 left in the first half for the 19-6 lead.
The Bulldogs went in the break in control until Monrovia took over on the second half.
Requnea led the Bulldogs rushing attack with 170 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown.
Rodriguez threw for 278 yards for Monrovia with Hernandez being his main target.
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