{"id":93722,"date":"2025-12-13T17:56:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=93722"},"modified":"2025-12-13T18:29:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T01:29:17","slug":"eagles-struggle-in-7-a-state-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=93722","title":{"rendered":"Eagles Struggle in 7-A State Final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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South El Monte Eagles\u2019 Bobby Rojas (87) catches a pass for the Eagles lone touchdown during a CIF Division 7-A Football State Championship game between the South El Monte Eagles and the visiting Balboa Buccaneers on December 13, 2025 in Buena Park, CA (Photo by David Thomas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Alex A. Gonzalez <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buena Park – With a CIF Division 14 title and a Regional title under their belts, the South El Monte Eagles faced the Balboa Buccaneers for the CIF 7-A State championship at Buena Park High School Saturday afternoon, and after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter, the Eagles could not recover, falling to the eventual champs 42-8.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe road for the Eagles (11-5, 4-2 Mission Valley), who entered the Division 14 playoffs as Mission Valley’s third team, relied on their defense as they made their way to the crown, holding opponents to less than a touchdown per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bBut when Buccaneers\u2019 (12-2, 5-0 Academic) quarterback Rylen Thien-Jones used his legs, which gained 28 yards on their first drive, South\u2019s defense was spread thin. Two plays later, Thein-Jones found Mekai Smith, who slipped out of the backfield for the 9-yard score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South El Monte Eagles\u2019 Damian Cordova (18) runs for yardage during a CIF Division 7-A Football State Championship game between the South El Monte Eagles and the visiting Balboa Buccaneers on December 13, 2025 in Buena Park, CA (Photo by David Thomas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe Eagles then had Michael Maldonado use a hard count against Balboa on their second drive to draw them offsides, and with back-to-back offsides, the Eagles found themselves in Balboa territory. Then, after he completed passes for 12 and 14 yards to Gabriel Canchola and Damian Cordova, South had a chance to tie the game at seven with 2:26 remaining in the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bUnfortunately, on first and goal from the 9-yard line, Maldonado scrambled out of the pocket and was stripped of possession and recovered by Jasiah Jackson. Five plays later, Thein-Jones and Smith hooked up for the second time of the game for a 27-yard catch and run as the first quarter ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThen, as the second quarter started, South El Monte\u2019s run-first offense would generate positive yardage between Maldonado and Cordova when they carried the rock into the red zone. However, the drive ended abruptly when Maldonado sailed his pass over his target and into the hands of Syrus Siga, who then took it back for the Bucs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bFrom that point, both teams would exchange punts, and Balboa went into intermission up 14-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South El Monte Eagles\u2019 Michael Maldonado (1) runs for yardage during a CIF Division 7-A Football State Championship game between the South El Monte Eagles and the visiting Balboa Buccaneers on December 13, 2025 in Buena Park, CA (Photo by David Thomas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u200bSouth\u2019s defense then fell apart in the third quarter by allowing Thien-Jones and Smith to reach the endzone on all three of their drives. Thien-Jones\u2019 49-yard touchdown toss came 33 seconds after they received the kickoff. And Smith carried for 11 and 78 yards, propelled the Bucs to a 34-0 lead with 2:17 left to play in the third quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe Eagles’ offense, which had had success moving the ball on Balboa in the first half, struggled to reach midfield in the second half. Once Cordova took the handoff, he was immediately met by Buc\u2019s defenders in the backfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bAfter allowing Thein-Jones to score his fourth touchdown of the afternoon midway through the fourth quarter, South El Monte would get on the board before the final buzzer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bWith a running clock already started, Maldonado dropped back to pass from the 12-yard line and connected with Bobby Rojas, who hauled in the pass with one hand. And after a successful 2-point try, South El Monte ended their 2025 postseason run as runners-up in the 7-A State Finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThere was no trophy presentation because players from both teams were pushing and shoving each other on the South sideline with a minute left in regulation. The officiating crew called the game from that point, and both teams were instructed to return to their locker rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South El Monte Starting O-Line<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LT: 51 Abraham Martinez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LG: 74 Sebastian Gallegos<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C: 55 Daniel Ruiz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RG: 66 Armando De La Rosa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RT: 77 Iva Lopez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense<\/p>\n\n\n\n

51 Abraham Martinez 3 Tackles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

77 Ivan Lopez 3 Tackles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

28 Abraham Cervantes 5 Tackles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Gabriel Conchola 7 Tackles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex A. Gonzalez Buena Park – With a CIF Division 14 title and a Regional title under their belts, the South El Monte Eagles faced the Balboa Buccaneers for the CIF 7-A State championship at Buena Park High School Saturday afternoon, and after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter, the Eagles could not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"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-93722","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\/93722","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93734,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93722\/revisions\/93734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}