MONROVIA >> Monrovia High School’s boys soccer team blitzed to the front of the Rio Hondo League pack on Wednesday afternoon. The Wildcats scored quick goals to defeat visiting South Pasadena, 5-1.
“They were like a wild stallion,” Monrovia coach Michael Williams said. “They wanted to go. They wanted to play.”
Monrovia scored in the fourth minute and then off of a South Pasadena corner kick for a 2-0 lead 23 minutes into the game.
“We were really hungry,” said Monrovia goalie Max Medley, who did not start because he missed two practices while making a recruiting visit to Sonoma State; a school he committed to on Wednesday. “We were ready for this game.”
The Wildcats (11-3-4, 2-0-1) emerged through arguably the toughest part of the first round of league play with the relatively easy victory over South Pasadena and a 1-1 tie against La Canada last week.
“They wanted to show that we had a really tough pre-league schedule and those posted scores don’t mean much,” Williams said.
South Pasadena (7-2-1, 0-2), one of the league favorites, now finds itself behind the eight-ball in league play.
“Our team just had a bad game overall,” forward Heven Gomez said. “We came in thinking it would be an easy game like last year. We underestimated them in what they could do. They were more physical. The two losses does hurt.”
All of Monrovia’s goals were on quick strikes, and two were off penalty kicks.
“I wouldn’t have predicted 5-1,” Williams said. “I predicted a tight game. We were looking to switch the ball and getting it to get one-on-one.”
Three minutes into the game, the Wildcats were fouled at midfield. Conor Sams’ long kick appeared to be heading out of bounds behind the goal. Narciso Mendez saved it and tapped it back, hoping a teammate was there. Antonio Rosas put the ball in.
South Pasadena had corner kick after corner kick, six in the first half, but could not get the ball in.
“Somehow the boys just were not connecting with each other,” Tigers coach Juan Zurita said. “We have three of four set plays and we know how to play them.”
On the Tigers’ fifth corner of the game, Zack Dunn sent the ball short. Chris Wong stole the ball and sent it upfield to Danny Hoefferle. After a long drive, he got it to Rafael Moralez for the score.
“I did not expect to score so many,” forward Harrison Sheppard said.
“I was really upset by those two quick goals because I know we’re better than that,” Gomez said.
South Pasadena scored in the 40th minute, 90 seconds before halftime. Gomez was fouled near the corner. Dunn’s free kick went across the face of the goal to Daniel Zurita, who headed the ball in.
The Wildcats struck quickly in the second half, too. Joel Cortez got the ball to Rosas. Goalkeeper Sam Hoadley-Brill came out to stop Rosas, but was called for tripping the forward. Cortez scored on the penalty kick.
Monrovia then scored twice in the game’s final five minutes. Sheppard scored with five minutes to play on a pass from D’Morea Alewine after a Wildcat throw-in.
Four minutes later, Wong had a one-on-one fastbreak with only goalkeeper Kevin Foster in front. A foul by defender Patrick Nelson, which resulted in a red card, led to an Alewine goal off a penalty kick.
“When you do not put the ball in the net, it’s hard,” Zurita said. “One mistake in the back and the keeper has to do what he has to do. If you have to make the foul, you make the foul. It’s part of the game.”
Gomez said the Tigers relied too much on counterattacks.
“I like balls going to my feet and we kept playing long balls and we can’t play long balls,” he said. “The good thing was we were able to put pressure to get the corner. We just did not finish them. That was the issue.”
