Jr. Gremlin (Flag)

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Gremlin

La Canada 9 Rosemead Rebels 12

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Jr. Pee Wee

La Canada: 8 Rosemead Rebels 12

With 4 wins and 2 losses, the La Canada Gladiator Jr Pee Wees traveled to Rosemead to take on the 5-1 Rebels, hoping to upset their Homecoming celebrations. The game was played at the beautiful Jess Gonzales Sports Complex. The Gladiators with 12 seconds left in game had what would have been the winning touchdown called back ona costly penalty. The Gladiators offense scored a net 45 yard rushing and 72 yards passing. The Gladiators led 8 to 6 at the game halftime from a touchdown run by Elijah Washington and a beautiful point after kick by Chris Wood. But the second half was dominated by the Rebels offensive running game which wore down the Gladiator defense.

The game started with the Rebels recovering their own onside kick off, but were quickly turned away by the Gladiator defensive unit of front line players Will Stewart, Mitchell Espinosa, Ian Goodstein, Jack Rothgeb, Michael Egan, Garrett Hamilton, David Getzen, Derek Albanese, Jacob Buntich and secondary players Joseph Reyes, Elijah Washington, Evan Estrada, Gaige Kier, Angel Martinez, Cade Vanneman, Chris Wood and Carson Okland with a 3 and out for the Rebels. On their first series of downs, the Gladiators ran off 9 plays with 3 first downs before the drive stalled and they were forced to punt the ball away. On the next Rebel second down, a bad snap allowed Elijah Washington to pummel the Rebel quarterback, forcing him to cough up the ball which was immediately smothered and recovered by his teammate Chris Simonian. The quarter ended scoreless.

The second quarter opened with a Rebel score and a 6-0 lead. The Gladiator offense then marched down the field to the 15 yard line. Harrison Woo put a crushing block on the Rebel defensive left linebacker, opening the way for Elijah Washington who waltzed, untouched, into the end zone. The Rebels called time out trying to freeze Gladiator kicker Chris Wood. The officials were having a lengthy discussion on the field and called another time out which kept Chris in the ice box for a prolonged period of time. However, the Rebels forgot one of the rules of basic physics: “wood doesn’t freeze,” and Chris Wood promptly booted the ball through the uprights for a Gladiator halftime lead of 8 to 6.

The third quarter saw the Rebel offense take command with a dominating running game, and the quarter ended with Rosemead putting together a scoring drive for a lead of 12 to 8.

In the fourth quarter, the Rebels & Gladiators battled back and forth with the Gladiator defense stopping the Rebels and turning over the ball to the offense with just a few minutes before games end. The Gladiators offense consisted of front line blockers Evan Estrada, Clayton Esparza, William Henderson, Ashton Baron, Michael Eagan, Griffin Dilbeck, Blake Northrop and Marcelino Martinez and backfield players, Joseph Reyes, Tyler Shakibai, Elijah Washington, Harrison Woo, Kai Aguila, Angel Martinez, Chris Simonian, Miles Haxton, and Jacob Buntich. They knew that this would be their last opportunity to score and took full advantage of it with Reyes completing two passes on the drive. The first completion was to Woo with a 12 yard reception and the second to Angel Martinez for a 22 yard gain.

With only 12 seconds on the clock, the Gladiators had to go for a desperate Hail Mary pass. Reyes slid right and threw the ball as far as he could hoping for a miracle. Wide receiver Harrison Woo, although surrounded by Rebel players, managed to out-jump all of them and pulled in the ball for an apparent touchdown. Unfortunately, a dead ball penalty on the Gladiators nullified the go-ahead score. A second Hail Mary went unanswered and the Gladiators saw their post season chances evaporate with the 12–8 loss to the Rebels.

Next Saturday at La Canada High School, the Gladiators will conclude their season at noon with a “Friendship Bowl” against an as yet, unknown opponent.

Pee Wee

La Canada 0 Rosemead Rebels 20

The Gladiator Pee Wees took on the unbeaten and always tough Rosemead Rebels in Rosemead morning Saturday, and played a very tenacious game.  Highlights included a goal line stand to preserve a scoreless first quarter, a forced and recovered fumble, and almost 100 yards in offense.  A close 6-0 game at halftime was broken open with two big second half plays, and the Rebels defeated the Gladiators 20-0.

The Gladiators starting offense of linemen Theo Chamberlain, Peter Simmeth, Jules Buenabenta, Michael Doud and Jason Rowton, tight ends Kurtis McNevin and Gregory Dulcich, QB Andrew VanGinkel and running backs Michael Chan, Jackson Totleben and Will McConnell took the opening kick-off.  Mixing runs and passing early, the Rebels intercepted a pass, and a good tackle by Dulcich limited the return.  The Rebels put together a long drive, but the Gladiator defense stiffened and forced a turn-over on downs on their own 15 yard line.  Set up by the run, Dulcich hit Chan for a 17 yard pass play, and the Gladiators were out to their 34.  The Rebel defense stepped up the pressure, and a La Canada 34 yard punt on 4th down gave the Rebel offense the ball on their 33 yard line as time expired in a scoreless first quarter.

The Gladiator defensive line of Nathan Gray, Conrad Oakes, Doud, Brandt Lukas and Zachary Kejmar, defensive backs McNevin, Chan, Totleben and Brian Erickson, and safeties McConnell and Dulcich hit the Rebels hard, forcing a fumble on the 2nd play of the drive, recovered by Erickson and returned 9 yards to the Rosemead 40.  The offense took over, and McConnell broke off a 19 yard gain behind additional blocking from Justin Sabourin, Jack Rappard and Lukas for a first down on the Rosemead 16.  The Rebels responded with a pair of sacks, and the Gladiators turned it over on downs.  Starting from their own 35, Rosemead put together an 8 play drive.  The Gladiators defense, augmented by Connor McGoldrick, Jordan Kruglov, John Solis, Drake Barron and Grady Schilling, swarmed to the ball.  Both Chan and McConnell came up big with saving tackles, but Rebels eventually punched it on a first and goal, making the score Rosemead 6-0 on the failed kick.  La Canada ran out the clock to halftime on its next possession to end a very competitive first half against the Arroyo League’s premier team.

La Canada kicker Drake Barron executed a perfect onside kick to begin the second half, and the ball was recovered by Nathan Gray on the Rebel 41 yard line.  Chan and McConnell ran for one first down, but a Gladiator interception gave Rosemead the ball on their own 30.  The Rebels broke a long run to the Gladiator 15, then scored to make it 12-0 at 5:43 of the 3rd quarter, PAT failed.  La Canada took the kick-off and went to work.  Behind additional blocking from Barron, Gavin Chi and Kyle Ramirez, and helped by a pass interference call on a 4th down fake punt, La Canada got to the Rebel 38.  Rosemead’s defense stiffened, and the Gladiators turned it over in downs to end the third quarter with Rosemead leading 12-0.

The Gladiator defense bottled up the next Rosemead drive, highlighted by a Theo Chamberlain sack for a loss of 2.  The Rebels turned it over on downs, and McConnell completed passes to Dulcich and Chan before the drive stalled and Rosemead again took the ball.  On a broken play where it looked like Gray had come up with a big sack, the Rebel QB eluded two Gladiators, reversed his field, and ran 62 yards for a TD, converting the kick to make the score 20-0 Rosemead.  La Canada made a final drive to score, highlighted by a McConnell 16 yard scamper into Rebel territory, but Rosemead stuffed the drive from there and took over on downs, running out the clock.  Final score Rosemead 20, La Canada 0, ending the Pee Wee’s 3-game winning streak and bringing their final season record to 3-4.

Please join the Pee Wees next Saturday at La Canada High School at 2:30pm for their final game of the season.

La Canada Jr Midget

La Canada 53 Pico Rivera Dons 0

Six different Gladiators scored touchdowns as the junior midget squad finished an undefeated regular season with a 53-0 rout over the host La Puente Warriors on Saturday afternoon.  For the first time this season, the Gladiators did not have a running back rush for over 100 yards.  However, the result was the same – a dominating victory!

Drake Beasley opened up the scoring for the Gladiators on a 19 yard touchdown run that was set up by a 35 yard pass from Mario Martinez to Antoine Wright.  Martinez found the end zone a few minutes later when he took in a Brett Gangi pass for a 30 yard touchdown.  On the Warriors next possession, Jackson Diaz intercepted a swing pass intended for the halfback and ran 47 yards for a defensive touchdown.  Diaz also batted down 2 other passes during the game helping his squad shut out the opponent for the fourth time this season.  Angel Salazar rounded out the first quarter scoring for the Gladiators with a touchdown run (60 yards on 4 carries).  Gangi added six more on a fifty yard interception return of a Warrior pass and Wright closed out the scoring for the first half with his first rushing touchdown of the year bringing the score to 41-0 Gladiators.

Although the second half was brief, it had several highlights.  Beasley scored his second touchdown of the year on an electrifying 57 yard run.  Andrew Sarceda scored his first touchdown of the year on a beautiful 19 yard run making several Warriors miss along the way.  Sarceda’s touchdown ended the game as he finished with a season high 29 yards on 2 carries.

The Gladiators finish the regular season undefeated and will enter next week’s playoffs as the top seed.  The Gladiators will take on an Azusa team this Saturday in the opening playoff game.  “They are the returning champs,” stated Gladiator Head Coach Jason Sarceda.  “We have our work cut out for us, but our boys are ready to meet the challenge.”

Offensively, the Gladiators tallied 407 yards with 339 of them coming on the ground.  In addition to Beasley and Martinez’s touchdowns, the Gladiators Angel Salazar and Max Meyer also reached the end zone in the second half.  Meyer scored his touchdown on a fullback plunge with 3:09 left in the third quarter to put the Gladiators on top 38-0.  Salazar wrapped up the scoring for the Gladiators on a beautiful 40 yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.  Salazar finished with a season high 61 yards on 5 carries averaging 12.1 yards per carry.

Defensively, the Gladiators dominated the line of scrimmage throughout the entire contest.  In addition to the outstanding play of Riley, the Gladiators’ defense held the Redskins to -8 yards in total offense by collecting 9 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.  David Yoon also tallied 4 tackles (2 solo) for an outstanding afternoon.

With this victory, the Gladiators are the Arroyo League Champs and will commence playoffs next Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at La Canada High School against the Azusa Raiders.

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