SOUTH PASADENA — If South Pasadena is going to compete for the Boulder League football title, it will need victories like the one it delivered on Friday with a 49-21 win over Crescenta Valley.
The Tigers improved to 5-2 and 2-0 in league play while dropping the Falcons to 3-4 and 1-2.
Both teams’ running backs were the stars Friday.
South Pasadena senior Evan Hyun rushed for 202 yards and four touchdowns while Crescenta Valley senior Phoenix Vengco rushed for 134 yards.
“Great effort on the offensive side of the ball,” South Pasadena coach Jeff Chi said. “The O-line did a great job of creating running lanes. I don’t think we threw the ball very much tonight, but as far as the running is concerned, those guys made it easy on our running backs.”
South Pasadena’s first half was the difference. Senior Toshio Matsuoka delivered a 53-yard touchdown run on the first play. Hyun made it 14-0 with a 7-yard touchdown run.
The Falcons answered with Julian Savery’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Joaquin Soriano to cut the Tigers’ lead in half.
After a Tigers turnover, Savery connected with Soriano again on another touchdown reception to tie the score, 14-14.
However, Hyun would answer for the Tigers with a touchdown run to put them back in front. Hyun added another touchdown run before the half to give the Tigers a 28-14 lead at the break.
The Tigers defense maintained the lead in the closing seconds of the half with a pass breakup.
“That’s something that we always struggle with,” Chi said. “We get ahead of teams and then for some reason, we relax a little bit, we let them back into the game and then we have to climb back out. But luckily we climbed back out in the second half strongly, the scores kept piling up and another huge win.”
Savery scored to cut the Tigers’ lead to 28-21 and the Falcons forced a three-and-out hoping to keep the momentum on their side.
But South Pasadena’s Campbell Carey recovered a fumble and ran it 65 yards for a touchdown to extend their lead to 35-21.
“That’s one thing that we do practice a lot is stripping the ball, rallying to the ball and trying to cause turnovers,” Chi said. “We’re glad those situations happen at a critical moment and that killed their momentum or trying to get back into the game.”
After another defensive stop, Hyun ripped a 73-yard touchdown run to put the game out of reach. South Pasadena’s defense forced a turnover on downs and senior Joshua Fang rushed in a 25-yard touchdown for the final score.
“We traditionally have some good, strong running backs in the past and Evan was the next guy up,” Chi said. “We told him this is your year and you got to really step it up. And I think tonight he really did in a huge spotlight. Really excited for him and his success. Hopefully he’ll continue that in the next couple of weeks.”