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Covina Vikings 14 – La Cañada Gladiators 0

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Gremlins

Covina Vikings 12 – La Cañada Gladiators 6

The La Cañada Gladiators Gremlins visited the Covina Vikings on Saturday, Oct. 13 at Covina High School. The game was a hard-fought defensive battle on both teams and the score was tied at 6-6 for most of the game until the third quarter when Covina scored on a perfectly timed pass out of a running formation to go up 12-6 and ultimately win the game.

The game began with a long drive from the Gladiators, mostly running behind tailback Christian (“CJ”) Mattmann and quarterback Liam Pasten behind the blocking of Joseph (“JoJo”) Padilla, Spencer Turner, Linus Lund, Derek Flores, Dixon Womack and Phoenix Vengco. The drive took 15 minutes off the clock and culminated early in the second quarter with a touchdown pass from Pasten to Thomas DeLucia to put the Gladiators up 6-0.

Covina answered with a quick strike on its next drive to tie the score 6-6.

The score would remain tied at 6-6 until late in the third quarter when Covina, on a play action pass, scored to go up 12-6. Despite several drives by the Gladiators, including one deep in Viking territory late in the game, the Gladiators were unable to punch it in, and Covina ran out the clock.

On defense, the Gladiators played lights out all game with exceptional performances from Spencer Turner, Joseph (“JoJo”) Padilla, and Derek Flores. Linebackers Alec Heberger and Emil Mejia also turned in stout performances to keep a high scoring Covina team (that had just scored 33 points on Azusa) to only 12 points.

The Gladiator Gremlins have a bye this week and resume play against La Puente on Sunday Oct. 28 at 10 a.m. at La Cañada High School.

Junior Pee Wee

Covina Vikings 26 – La Cañada Gladiators 19

On Saturday afternoon at Covina High, the La Cañada Jr. Pee Wees dropped to 1-5 on the season with a tough 26-19 loss to the host Covina Vikings.

La Cañada opened on offense but a pass from Crowley Sullivan intended for Will Nyhan was intercepted by Covina. Eight plays later Covina converted this into a 6-0 lead for the Vikings. The Gladiators were forced to punt on their second series, but the La Cañada defense, anchored by linemen Daniel Damaryan, Joe Martinez, Gavin Gates, Justin Kong, Alex Abramian, Diego Ortiz, and Laz Tio stuffed the Covina offense and forced a turnover on downs. A promising drive by La Cañada ended on third and goal from the 5 when a Sullivan pass intended for Jarrett Khachikian was intercepted in the endzone. After an exchange of punts, the teams headed into halftime with Covina holding a 6-0 lead.

Covina got the ball to start the third quarter and scored on a 45-yard run to go ahead 12-0. Following a Jimmy Spears 15-yard kickoff return to the 35-yard line, the Gladiators responded with a 6 play drive, highlighted by a halfback pass from Kenton Collins to Nyhan and a Klein touchdown run which narrowed the Covina lead to 12-6. But the Vikings answered with a 34-yard touchdown pass to increase their lead to 20-6.

Both teams slugged it out on the next few possessions, neither team able to put anything together until, with only minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, when defensive end Collins sacked the Vikings quarterback and forced a fumble that Scott Carey scooped-up and scored on a 64-yard play. A successful conversion pass from Sullivan to Nyhan put the game within reach at 26-19.

La Cañada failed to recover an onside kick, but a permanent defensive stand led by Collins, Gates, Ortiz, Justin Kong, Klein and Martinez forced a punt and set La Cañada up with one more shot at victory with 3:00 remaining. Unfortunately, that shot at victory failed and the Covina Vikings sent the La Cañada Gladiators home with a 26-19 loss.

While most of Gladiator nation takes this bye week off, your Junior Pee Wees welcome your support as they travel this week to El Sereno looking to get their second victory of the season.

Pee Wee

Covina Vikings 19 – La Cañada Gladiators 9

The 3-2 La Cañada Gladiators Pee Wee football team traveled to Covina High School on Saturday, Oct. 13 with high hopes, facing off against the 4-1 Covina Vikings. Unfortunately, the Gladiators were outplayed in the second half and lost 19-9 to fall to a 3-3 record, though they remained in first place in the Baseline Division.

La Cañada’s high-powered aerial attack was never able to take flight against the Vikings and the first drive epitomized the difficulties the Gladiators would have all day long against a talented Covina defense. After receiving the opening kickoff, the Gladiators threw three straight incompletions, and punted on fourth and 10. Fortunately La Cañada played stellar defense for 20 minutes and shut out Covina in the first half. The defense was again led by middle linebackers Jacob Lopez and Brooklyn Pasten, who together with fellow linebackers David Mysza, Scottie Smith, and Luke Cullen, defensive linemen Sebastian Pascuzzo, Dominick Cozza, Jayden Espadas, Noah Zarate, Brian Boyer, Frank Higginbotham, David O’Connor, David Galaviz, and Jayden Siques, defensive backs Corey Cheung, Jake Arellano, Shade Schafer, Ted Amorosi, and Izziah Alzaga held Covina’s normally high scoring offense to just five yards in the first half.

Highlights for the Gladiator defense in the first half included a sack by blitzing outside linebacker David Mysza and an interception, also by Mysza, late in the second quarter. Defensive tackle Brian Boyer and linebacker Jacob Lopez also had two tackles for loss in the first half.

The Gladiator offense, on the other hand, failed to adjust to the aggressive Covina defense and, unable to rely on their normally reliable passing attack, sputtered on the ground as well, managing only 24 yards on the ground the entire game. The only successful drive of the game for the Gladiators came in the second quarter, when a short Viking punt gave the Gladiators possession on the Covina 30-yard line. Even with good field possession, the La Cañada offense only managed to drive 24 yards on 10 plays, both first downs gained on Covina defensive penalties. Even then, La Cañada could not punch it in, and had to settle for a 22-yard field goal from their always-reliable kicker Jayden Espadas. The 3-0 La Cañada lead held until halftime.

Unfortunately, whatever hopes the Gladiators had starting the second half faded as the Covina coaching staff adjusted on offense. Covina’s offense, which was shut out in the first half, scored touchdowns on all three possessions in the second half. Covina mixed a steady ground attack with play action passes that resulted in two touchdown passes, one each in the third and four quarters. Covina’s third touchdown came in the fourth quarter when poor Gladiator tackling allowed the Covina fullback to run 56 yards for a touchdown on a simple dive up the middle.

La Cañada’s only bright spot in the second half came after Covina’s third touchdown when Corey Cheung returned the ensuing kickoff 67 yards for a touchdown with two seconds left in the game.

After a bye week, the Gladiators host the La Puente Warriors in their final regular season game at La Cañada High School’s Spartan Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 2 p.m.