By Rich Whittington
(San Marino) – The South Pasadena Tigers were in a great position going into Friday’s matchup against the rival San Marino Titans; they were 8-1, everyone predicted them to handily beat this week’s opponent, and they had the playoffs firmly in their grasp. In fact, with all of these factors in place, some were asking why they even needed to play the game? Unfortunately for South Pas, someone forgot to tell the Titans that they were supposed to lose. As a result, the host Titans upset the visiting Tigers, 23-21, in front of a very enthusiastic crown Titans’ Stadium.
San Marino opened the scoring for the evening. After a scoreless first quarter, the Titans put together a 14 play, 91-yard drive that cumulated in a 1-yard TD blast by Ryan Singhal. The PAT was added by Freshman kicker Jacob Kreinbring, making the score 7-0, Titans, with 3:59 remaining in the game’s opening half.
South Pasadena answered, when quarterback Jackson Freking crossed the goal line for a 13-yard score. The PAT was added by Aidan Kinney, which made the score 7-7 as the halftime buzzer sounded.
South Pasadena took the lead in the third quarter, when Freking scored his second rushing touchdown of the evening on a 15-yard scamper. Another Kinney PAT made the score 14-7 after three quarters.
San Marino tied the contest in the fourth quarter, when quarterback Brady Beck scored on a 1-yard TD plunge. Another Kreinbring PAT knotted the score at 14 with 8:38 remaining in the contest.
San Marino took the lead a few minutes later, as Mikey Yessaian intercepted an errant Frecking pass and returned it 86-yards for the go-ahead score. Kreinbring’s kick attempt was unsuccessful, making the score 20-14, with 4:03 remaining in the contest.
South Pasadena countered, taking the lead when Frecking connected with Quinn Stirling for a 42-yard touchdown. A third Kinney extra point gave the Tigers a 21-20 lead with 3:23 remaining in regulation.
As poetic as it could possibly be, one of the game’s biggest moments was provided by one of the Titans’ youngest players. After putting together a 12-play, 48-yard drive, Kreinbring was called upon to attempt a game-winning 37-yard field goal. South Pasadena attempted to ice the young kicker by calling a timeout. When play resumed, South Pasadena was charged with a five-yard penalty, making the winning attempt 32-yards. The snap was perfect, the hold was perfect, and the kick, well, that was perfect as well, giving the Titans the lead, and the victory, 23-21.
The result of this evening’s events created a three-way tie for second place in the Rio Hondo League, between San Marino, South Pasadena, and La Canada. By league agreement, this tie was broken by the use of a scoring differential between the three teams involved. This established San Marino as the league’s second place team. The third place finish was determined by head-to-head competition, which resulted in South Pasadena being declared as the third place finisher.
In short, both San Marino and South Pasadena have qualified for the CIF Playoffs. Their opponents, game locations, and kickoff times will be determined on Sunday.
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Sounds like SP coaches blew it by trying to ice kicker , but ultimately extending game and giving free yards to allow successful field goal
The series over the past 3 years have yielded frenzied and crazy endings.
3 years ago San Marino won on a final play field goal, converted by their kicker who missed multiple extra point kicks, The field goal barely cleared the cross bar and it the kick distance had been a yard or two longer, likely would not have been good.
Last year So Pasadena won at home, again with a frantic finish with San Marino denied at the So Pas 2 or 3 yd line on a play with multiple laterals, think Stanford Cal game.
Now this year,2022, the above fails to capture the crazed finish.
First the SM last gasp field goal was on a 4th and 4 at the 37, SM lined up and snapped the ball, and the snap was poor, causing the kick to go low and was blocked by a SP player who was basically unblocked, but it was a ice the kicker time out. On the following play SP tried to ice the kicker again, the coaches attempted to call time out, but as the line judge was under the uprights to make the call on the field goal, no game official saw the frenzied attempts to call time out, as the SP coaches were running 15 to 20 yds onto the field. A penalty flag for side line violation follows and so does a ref conference on the field that goes on as all refs discuss the penalty, The White hat tells the SP coaches that it will only be a 5 yd penalty, and the conference starts up again, and ultimately the flag is picked up. Meanwhile the SP fans and sidelines roiled until the pick up. Had the penalty held it would have been first down. But SM has no time outs left.
Again the field goal is set up and a 5 yd penalty ensues immediately on the snap, as stated above the ball is placed for the ultimate field goal to win the game. And in shades of what goes around comes around, on the final play SP starts up their own Cal Stanford finish with who knows as I lost count at least 10 laterals, but failed with a lineman gets tackled around mid field. A penalty for a blind side block would have invalidated the play even if it worked.
Much disappointment on one side and hoo-haw celebration on the other as another rivalry high school game ends in the series with a wild finish and the Crowley Cup ends up changing hands again. AS for pure entertainment the series continues to deliver. And as stated above, based on Cal Preps and records, it should not have been a contest, but as one fan stated at the end, “That is why they play the game”