Jr. Gremlin Flag

La Cañada Gladiators 0, La Puente Warriors 7

No report submitted.

Gremlin

La Puente Warriors 38, La Cañada Gladiators 6

The La Cañada Gladiators Gremlins hosted the La Puente Warriors on Sunday, Oct. 28 at La Cañada High School. The game was tied 6-6 at the half, but a close game was blown wide open in the late third quarter when La Puente scored on a couple of long runs, to best La Cañada 38-6.

La Cañada deferred, and La Puente came out nervous on its first drive. After three negative plays, La Puente attempted to punt, but the snap sailed over the punter’s head and La Cañada’s Emil Mejia rushed to the ball, maintained possession and scored a quick touchdown to put the Gladiators up 6-0 early in the game.

After stopping the Warriors on offense, the Gladiators drove down the field to the 4-yard line but unfortunately turned the ball over with an interception to give the Warriors the ball back.

On the Warriors’ ensuing possession, they successfully drove downfield and scored tying the game at 6-6 shortly before halftime.

In the second half, La Puente made some adjustments and focused on passing that, in turn, benefited the Warriors’ running game. After a long pass, La Puente was able to score and, following another interception on the offensive side of the ball for the Gladiators, La Puente also capitalized, this time on the ground with a running touchdown to bring the score to 19-6. The Warriors would score on a pick six interception early in the fourth quarter, and follow with two more scores throwing and running to bring the final tally to 38-6.

The offensive/defensive line, including Joseph (“JoJo”) Padilla, Linus Lund, Derek Flores, Dixon Womack, and Phoenix Vengco, all contributed greatly to the team’s success.

The La Cañada Gladiator Gremlins finished their regular season with a record of 4-4 and will advance to the first round of playoffs where they will again face the La Puente Warriors.

Junior Pee Wee

Huntington Park Spartans 36, La Cañada Gladiators 6

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Pee Wee

La Cañada Gladiators 44, La Puente Warriors 0

On Sunday, Oct. 28, the La Cañada Gladiators ended the regular season by crushing the visiting La Puente Warriors 44-0 at La Cañada High School. In the process, the Gladiators clinched the Baseline Division Championship and secured a birth in the playoffs as the three seed. La Cañada dominated from start to finish in a convincing win that featured a balanced offensive attack and a suffocating defense.

La Cañada won the coin-toss but deferred. La Puente’s first offensive drive went nowhere, the Warriors losing four yards on three straight runs leading to a 22-yard punt to the La Cañada 44-yard line. The Gladiator offense then went to work, driving 53 yards on four plays, highlighted by two passes from quarterback David Mysza, the first a simple 5-yard hitch to Brooklyn Pasten, which he converted into a 24-yard gain after bowling over three La Puente tacklers, and the second a 15-yard pass to slot receiver Shade Schaefer. The Gladiators then went to the ground on two straight running plays to running back Corey Cheung, the second from 3-yard out resulting in a touchdown. Pasten kicked the point after touchdown to put the Gladiators up 8-0 with four minutes left in the first quarter.

The formula of the first two possessions would repeat for the remainder of the first half. La Cañada’s defense stifled La Puente’s offense, followed by La Cañada touchdowns from their balanced offense. The Gladiators went up 16-0 on their second possession after Mysza through a perfect bomb down the left sideline to wide receiver Ted Amorosi for a 47-yard touchdown. On their fourth offensive possession of the first half, Mysza scored himself on a 1-yard quarterback sneak. Mysza had ample time to throw all day and was never sacked as the Gladiator offensive line played superbly, anchored by center Luke Cullen, tackles Brian Boyer, Noah Zarate and Brandon Bloch, and guards Dominick Cozza, Thomas Sorensen, David O’Connor, David Galaviz and Jayden Siques.

Balance was the name of the game for the Gladiator offense as it ran the ball 12 times for 121 yards and threw the ball 12 times for 163 yards over the course of the game. It was a total team effort as the La Cañada offense averaged an amazing 12.3-yard per play from scrimmage. Mysza spread the ball around in the Gladiators’ feared passing attack, targeting seven different receivers including Pasten, Schaefer, Amorosi, Cheung, Scottie Smith, Matteo Gallegos and Michael Okland. Schaefer led all receivers with two catches for 67 yards and one touchdown. The Gladitor passing attack was highlighted by a 52-yard touchdown pass to Shade Schaefer in the fourth quarter.

As brilliantly as the La Cañada offense played, the Gladiator defense was even better. La Puente entered the game with a potent offense itself, having averaged 22 points a game in its first seven games. La Cañada’s defense, playing with stalwart middle linebacker Nevada Miller who was out with an injured thumb, rose to the challenge and smothered the La Puente offense, shutting it out and holding it to just 79 yards of total offense. The defense was led by middle linebackers Jacob Lopez, who had a stellar game recording 12 tackles, 4 assists and 2½ sacks, and Brooklyn Pasten, who had 10 tackles and a 50-yard pick six in the fourth quarter that snuffed out any hope La Puente had of avoiding a shutout. Outside linebackers Scottie Smith and David Mysza rounded out the Gladiator linebacking corps, while the defensive line racked up four sacks and pressured the Warrior quarterbacks the entire game. The defensive line was led by defensive ends Dominick Cozza, Sebastian Pascuzzo, Jalen Gregory and Thomas Sorensen, and defensive tackles Noah Zarate, Brian Boyer, Frank “Tank” Higginbotham, David O’Connor, Jayden Siques and David Galaviz.

The Gladiator pass defense held La Puente to only 14 yards passing. Highlighted by Pasten’s 50-yard interception return for a touchdown, the secondary was led by safety Amorosi who had six tackles and two assists. Cornerbacks Corey Cheung, Jake Arellano, Michael Okland, Nicholas Battany, Matteos Gallegos and Shade Shaefer smothered the Warrior receivers throughout the game.

La Cañada’s blowout win earned them a re-match against La Puente in a quarterfinal playoff game on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 9