By Rich Whittington
(El Monte) The El Monte Lions started off the 2025 Football season in a grand fashion Friday evening, defeating the visiting Arcadia Apaches, 44-6, in a meeting of old Pacific League rivals.
The evening started off with a celebratory feel. El Monte debuted their new field, their new scoreboard, and the new “official” name of the facility…Lion’s Stadium.
El Monte wasted no time getting on that new scoreboard. After receiving the opening kickoff, El Monte put together an eight play, 82-yard scoring drive, which was punctuated by a 35-yard scoring connection from quarterback Alex Aleman to wide receiver Alonso Hernandez, Jr. The PAT was successfully converted by Aaron Rivera, making the score 7-0 with 9:09 remaining in the opening quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff, El Monte attempted a bit of trickery. The Lions successfully recovered an onside kick
attempt, courtesy of Ricardo Romero. This gave El Monte the ball on the Arcadia side of the field. Six plays later, the Lions earned their second score of the evening when running back Aaron Duron-Valerino found the end zone on a 1-yard TD blast. A second Rivera PAT was added, making the score 14-0 at the halfway point of the first period. The Lions
added a third score in the first, when Aleman showed that he could also score as a runner, converting on a 32-yard rush. Rivera added a third PAT, making the score 21-0. with 5:04 to play.
The Apaches got their first score of the young season a few minutes later, when quarterback AJ Pressnall ran for an 8-yard score. The PAT was unsuccessful, making the score 21-6, after one quarter of play.
El Monte added 10 more points in the second quarter, all provided by Rivera. The first three points came from a successful 40-yard field goal. The next six, from a successful 1-yard touchdown rumble. The final point was added with another successful PAT conversion. This scoring barrage made the score 31-6 at halftime.
The Lions added two additional scores in the third quarter. Two more Aleman scoring passes…the first, a 21-yard strike to fullback Jaime Hernandez, the second, a 20-yard connection to wide receiver Noah Munoz, along with another Rivera PAT, made the score 44-6 after three quarters of play.
The final period saw backup players from both teams get a bit of that invaluable game experience, with no additional scoring after the end of the third.
The Lions will be looking to improve to 2-0 on the young season next Friday, when they travel to Alhambra to battle the Moors. Arcadia will be at home, where they will face the South Pasadena Tigers. Game time for both battles is scheduled for 7:00 PM.
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@ Detached Observer: Thanks, and yes, I hope that the Moors can make it two straight victories to start the season.
As I see it, we’ll have to be more successful throwing the ball downfield, and we need to shore up our pass defense. On the plus side, our pass rushers and our secondary made some plays late against South El Monte, so I’m optimistic that we can continue improving in those areas.
I think it’ll be a good game if Alhambra’s defense can slow El Monte down and we can avoid mistakes on offense. The Moors committed zero turnovers in last week’s opener, so that’s a good sign.
Great bit of history Ron !
It’s going to be a long , long year for Arcadia . I see 1-9 record with only win vs lowly Glendale
Can Alhambra validate that victory with another win this week ?
@ Rich W: Arcadia and El Monte are VERY old Pacific League rivals. The last time El Monte was in that league was during the 1970-71 school year, when I was a sophomore at Alhambra High, which was also in the PL back then.
Go Lions!