By Rich Whittington <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(El Monte) – The El Monte Lions had a choice to make on Thursday evening; win the game and earn a trip to the playoffs or lose and end up relying on the results of a coin flip to break a potential three-way tie. The Lions chose option #1, defeating the visiting Rosemead Panthers, 28-21, in front of a very vocal, sometimes rowdy, crowd in the friendly confines of Lions\u2019 Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
Rosemead opened the evening\u2019s scoring when quarterback Frank Weisbrod connected with Javier Suarez, Jr. for a 2-yard score. The 2-Point PAT attempt was unsuccessful, making the score 6-0, Panthers, with 7:30 remaining in the game\u2019s opening quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The score remained unchanged until the middle of the second quarter when the Lions scored on a 1-yard TD blast by quarterback Alexiz Rodriquez. The point after was added by Bryan Gomez, making the score 7-6, Lions, with 8:43 remaining in the half. The Lions took the lead a brief time later, as Rodriquez rushed for his second score of the quarter; a 6-yard touchdown. Another Gomez PAT made the score 14-6, El Monte, at the halfway point of the second quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rosemead closed the gap when Weisbrod connected with receiver Miles Lugo for his second score of the evening; a 59-yard TD toss. Another unsuccessful 2-Point PAT attempt made the score 14-12, El Monte, with 4:27 remaining in the half. Rosemead would take the lead, courtesy of a pair of Jacob Wang Field Goals\u2026from 32 and 41 yards, respectively. This gave the Panthers an 18-14 lead at the halftime break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rosemead continued the kicking prowess in the second half, as Wang connected for his third Field Goal of the game, a 27-yard kick, which made the score 21-14, Panthers, with 7:15 remaining in the third quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
El Monte answered a short time later, when Rodriquez connected with Jonathan Lopez for a 78-yard catch-and-run. Another successful Gomez PAT tied the score at 21 with 6:48 remaining in the third. El Monte scored for the second time in the period, when wide receiver Joshua Juarez found pay-dirt on a 7-yard sweep. Gomez added his fourth extra point which made the score 28-21, Lions, after three quarters of play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This would end up being the game\u2019s final score. With the win, the Lions improved to 5-5, 4-1 in Mission Valley League play, and finished second in the MVL. El Monte advances to the CIF Playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. Opponent, location, and kickoff time are to be determined. Rosemead finishes the season 3-7, 2-3 in the Mission Valley League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Rich Whittington (El Monte) – The El Monte Lions had a choice to make on Thursday evening; win the game and earn a trip to the playoffs or lose and end up relying on the results of a coin flip to break a potential three-way tie. The Lions chose option #1, defeating the visiting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12816,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","category-high-school-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77824,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77808\/revisions\/77824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}