Monrovia and San Marino squared off on Friday night for the Rio Hondo League title. After scoring first the Titans had their sights squarely set on ending the Wildcats’ 4 year run as league champs. However after a competitive 1st quarter that ended 14 – 14, Monrovia proceeded to outscore San Marino 48-7 en route to a 62 – 21 victory.
San Marino went ahead in the 1st quarter by scores of 7 - 0 and 14 – 7 however each time the Wildcats bounced back quickly, led by stud running back Kurt Scoby. After falling behind 7-0, Scoby took a swing pass 49 yards for a touchdown. On the Cats ‘next possession Scoby broke off a 74 yard run to tie the score at 14. Per Wildcat head coach Ryan Maddox, “The plan was to run right at them. The offensive line did a great job opening holes for Kurt and when he hit the hole, he was gone…He is a special back, incredible vision, physicality and top end speed.”
Scoby went on to tally 3 more touchdowns on carries of 29 and 93 yards, along with a 68 yard reception. The offensive line did a terrific job against San Marino enabling Scoby to tally over 450 total yards in the game. According to senior offensive lineman, Gage Buosanti “we work our butts off every day in practice, every down…Our O-Line is really strong this year and having a great running back behind us naturally makes it easy for us to look good.”
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The Monrovia defense made some adjustments after the first quarter and did a good job of containing the explosive San Marino attack. The offense, defense and special teams all performed well again, enabling the Wildcats to pull away in the 2nd quarter. Previous Monrovia teams may have boasted more stars however according to Buosanti “this year’s group is very close…We still have the talent but we seem to be an even closer team than in years past.”
Monrovia is to be commended for a 5th consecutive Rio Hondo League championship however there are bigger goals on the horizon. After the game Maddox was quick to remind the ‘Cats “right back to business on Monday! This is only the first step on our journey.”
