By Tim Peterson
(Monrovia) -Jason Hong ran over, around and through Monrovia for 233 yards and five touchdowns to lead South Pasadena to a 56-28 thrashing of the Wildcats Friday night in Rio Hondo League action.
Hong kept getting the ball and kept pounding away and seemed to get stronger as the game progressed. He scored once in the first quarter, twice in the second, and once more in the third before busting off a 29-yard touchdown romp with just over eight minutes left in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Monrovia had no answer as the Tigers piled up 297 yards on the ground overall with Hong doing the bulk of the damage.
South Pasadena was up 35-14 at the half putting Monrovia behind the eight-ball. But on the first possession of the third quarter Davonte Jones capped a 71-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown to get the Wildcats with two scores.
But the Tigers, as they had done all night responded. They drove 65 yards on 10 plays with Hong finishing it up with a one-yard burst with 11 seconds left in the third quarter.
That may have been the back breaker but early in the fourth quarter Brian Salazar scrambled for a 10-yard touchdown to cap an 80-yard drive to make it 42-28.
South Pasadena went right back to work and it didn’t take long. The Tigers needed just three plays to get in the endzone again. It was Hong again who rumbled 29-yards through the gut of the Monrovia defense for the score and with 8:28 left it was 49-28.
A fourth down stop on Monrovia put the Tigers on a short field and they cashed in again. David Ortega put the icing on the cake with a 24-yard touchdown bolt to make it 56-28.
South Pas could have dropped 60 but the Tigers took knees at the Monrovia five-yard line as the clock ran out.
The Tigers set the tone early scoring on their first possession. They used only four plays to go 76 yards. Hong went the last two on a two-yard run.
Vincent Paez caught a short one-yard TD pass from Salazar on the next series to get the Cats even but on the ensuing kickoff David Eisenberg took it 85 yards to the house for a 14-7 lead. It was a lead the Tigers never relinquished.
South Pas struck quickly two minutes later when Devin Robinson took a pass in the flat from Liam Ohannesian and turned it into a 54-yard touchdown and Boom! it was 21-7.
Hong ended two long drives with touchdown runs of two and one yards in the second quarter to put the Tigers in the driver’s seat heading into the break.
Jones had a catch and run for a 59-yard touchdown as he hurdled a defender along the way to keep Monrovia in the mix in the second quarter but a 21-point halftime deficit was just too much to overcome.
Salazar completed 27 of 46 for 338 yards and two touchdowns for Monrovia and Joshua Griffiths caught 10 passes for 114 yards but it wasn’t nearly enough.
On this night it was all about South Pasadena and Jason Hong. Or as someone mentioned on the Tigers sideline “King” Hong. It was a fitting description.
South Pasadena improved to 6-1 overall and more importantly 1-1 In the Rio Hondo while Monrovia dropped to 3-3 and 1-1.
Me too!
This makes me smile