The South Pasadena High School varsity football team picked up a 42-28 Rio Hondo League victory at Temple City on Oct. 12.
“We have to give credit to Temple City for coming out and really giving us a rough time initially,” Tigers coach Jeff Chi said. “We were able to fix that in the second half and just kind of took control from that point on.”
As he’s done all year, senior standout Jason Hong finished with an impressive performance. The running back scored all six touchdowns and tallied 210 rushing yards on 21 carries. He also scored a two-point conversion on a 23-yard catch.
Through three Rio Hondo League games, Hong has scored 12 touchdowns and accumulated 527 yards on 65 carries. His performance has helped the Tigers put together a 2-1 league record, 7-1 overall.
“We tried to get our passing game on early and we weren’t that successful but we could … always give the ball to Jason to make up for it. Sure enough, he did,” Chi said. “Anytime we got him the ball he was getting 6 yards, 7 yards, 12 yards — he was getting massive yards by running. We always have him as an assurance that we can move the ball.”
Senior Liam Ohannesian completed 5 of 8 passes for 54 yards. Senior Elijah Garcia had three receptions for 18 yards, while junior James Dowd had a 13-yard catch with six tackles and a sack on defense.
Junior David Ortega rushed for 41 yards on three carries and produced a game-high 10 tackles on defense. Senior Devin Robinson had one carry for 12 yards, while senior Sawyer Fox went 4-for-5 in PAT attempts.
Seniors Luke Riffle and Carlo Williams each tallied six tackles, while senior Logan Ayala and junior David Eisenberg each finished with four tackles. Senior Harrison Farley produced three tackles and a sack, while senior Damian Flores contributed three tackles. Sophomore Diego Loera chipped in two tackles and a sack, junior Bruno Rios recorded two tackles, and senior Whitman Brida had one tackle.
The Tigers will host La Cañada for a league game on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. before hosting Pasadena Polytechnic in their regular season finale on Oct. 27.
First published in the October 20 print issue of the South Pasadena Review.
